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THE  AMERICAN  LECTURES 
ON  THE  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS. 


I.  Buddhism. — The  History  and  Literature  of  Bud¬ 
dhism.  By  T.  W.  Rhys-Davids,  LL.D.,  Ph.D. 

II.  Primitive  Religions. — The  Religions  of  Primitive 
Peoples.  By  D.  G.  Brinton,  M.D.,  Sc.D.,  Professor  of 
American  Archaeology  and  Linguistics  in  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania.  (1897.) 

III.  Israel. — Religious  Thought  and  Life  among  the 
Ancient  Hebrews.  By  the  Rev.  T.  K.  Cheyne,  M.A. , 
D.D.,  Professor  of  the  Interpretation  of  the  Holy  Scrip¬ 
tures  at  Oxford,  and  Canon  of  Rochester.  (1898.) 

IV.  Israel. — Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile.  By  Karl 
Budde,  Professor  of  Theology  in  Strassburg. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM’S  SONS 

NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 


AMERICAN  LECTURES  ON  THE 
HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

THIRD  SERIES-1897-1898 


JEWISH  RELIGIOUS  LIFE 
AFTER  THE  EXILE  - 


BY 

THE  REV.  T.  K.  CHEYNE,  M.A.,  D.D. 

Oriel  Professor  of  the  Interpretation  of  Holy  Scripture  at  Oxford, 
and  formerly  Fellow  of  Balliol  College;  ' 

Canon  of  Rochester 


G.  P.  PUTNAM’S  SONS 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 
Gbe  IKnickerbocker  press 

1901 


,6 


Copyright,  1898 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM’S  SONS 
Entered  at  Stationers’  Hall,  London 


Ube  ftnfclterbocker  press,  flew  Ifloth 


ANNOUNCEMENT. 


THE  American  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Re¬ 
ligions  are  delivered  under  the  auspices  of 
the  American  Committee  for  Lectures  on  the  His¬ 
tory  of  Religions.  This  Committee  was  organised  in 
1892  for  the  purpose  of  instituting  “  popular  courses 
in  the  History  of  Religions,  somewhat  after  the  style 
of  the  Hibbert  lectures  in  England,  to  be  delivered 
annually  by  the  best  scholars  of  Europe  and  this 
country,  in  various  cities,  such  as  Baltimore,  Boston, 
Brooklyn,  Chicago,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and 
others.” 

The  terms  of  association  under  which  the  Com¬ 
mittee  exists  are  as  follows  : 

1. — The  object  'of  this  Association  shall  be  to  provide 
courses  of  lectures  on  the  history  of  religions, 
to  be  delivered  in  various  cities. 

2. — The  Association  shall  be  composed  of  delegates 
from  Institutions  agreeing  to  co-operate,  or 
from  Local  Boards,  organised  where  such  co¬ 
operation  is  not  possible. 

3. — These  delegates — one  from  each  Institution  or 
Local  Board — shall  constitute  themselves  a 


IV 


Announcement 


Council  under  the  name  of  the  “  American 
Committee  for  Lectures  on  the  History  of 
Religions.’' 

4.  — The  Council  shall  elect  out  of  its  number  a  Presi¬ 

dent,  a  Secretary,  and  a  Treasurer. 

5.  — All  matters  of  local  detail  shall  be  left  to  the  In¬ 

stitutions  or  Local  Boards,  under  whose  aus¬ 
pices  the  lectures  are  to  be  delivered. 

6.  — A  course  of  lectures  on  some  religion,  or  phase 

of  religion,  from  an  historical  point  of  view,  or 
on  a  subject  germane  to  the  study  of  reli¬ 
gions,  shall  be  delivered  annually,  or  at  such 
intervals  as  may  be  found  practicable,  in  the 
different  cities  represented  by  this  Association. 

7.  — The  Council  (a)  shall  be  charged  with  the  selec¬ 

tion  of  the  lecturers,  (b)  shall  have  charge  of 
the  funds,  ( c )  shall  assign  the  time  for  the 
lectures  in  each  city,  and  perform  such  other 
functions  as  may  be  necessary. 

8.  — Polemical  subjects,  as  well  as  polemics  in  the  treat¬ 

ment  of  subjects,  shall  be  positively  excluded. 

9.  — The  lecturer  shall  be  chosen  by  the  Council  at 

least  ten  months  before  the  date  fixed  for  the 
course  of  lectures. 

10.  — The  lectures  shall  be  delivered  in  the  various 

cities  between  the  months  of  October  and 

June. 


Announcement 


v 


11.  — The  copyright  of  the  lectures  shall  be  the  prop¬ 

erty  of  the  Association. 

12.  — One  half  of  the  lecturer’s  compensation  shall  be 

paid  at  the  completion  of  the  entire  course, 
and  the  second  half  upon  the  publication  of 
the  lectures. 

13.  — The  compensation  offered  to  the  lecturer  shall 

be  fixed  in  each  case  by  the  Council. 

14.  — The  lecturer  is  not  to  deliver  elsewhere  any  of 

the  lectures  for  which  he  is  engaged  by  the 
Committee,  except  with  the  sanction  of  the 
Committee. 

The  Committee  as  now  constituted  is  as  follows  : 
C.  H.  Toy  (Harvard  University),  Chairman. 

Morris  Jastrow,  Jr.  (University  of  Pa.),  Secretary. 
John  P.  Peters  (New  York),  Treasurer. 

Francis  Brown  (Union  Theological  Seminary). 
Richard  J.  H.  Gottheil  (Columbia  University). 
Paul  Haupt  (Johns  Hopkins  University). 

Franklin  W.  Hooper  (Brooklyn  Institute). 

J.  F.  Jameson  (Brown  University). 

George  F.  Moore  (Andover  Theological  Semi¬ 
nary). 

F.  K.  Sanders  (Yale  University). 

J.  G.  Schurman  (Cornell  University). 

The  first  course  of  American  Lectures  on  the  His¬ 
tory  of  Religions  was  delivered  in  the  winter  of 


VI 


Announcement 


1894-1895,  by  Prof.  T.  W.  Rhys-Davids,  Ph.D., 
LL.D.,  of  London,  England.  His  subject  was  the 
History  and  Literature  of  Buddhism.  The  second 
course  was  delivered  in  1896-1897,  by  Prof.  Daniel 
G.  Brinton,  A.M.,  M.D.,  LL.D.,  Sc.D.,  of  Philadel¬ 
phia,  on  the  Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples.  These 
lectures  were  published  in  book  form  by  Messrs.  G. 
P.  Putnam’s  Sons,  publishers  to  the  Committee,  un¬ 
der  the  above  titles,  in  1896  and  1897  respectively. 

The  third  course  of  lectures  was  delivered  in  1897- 
1898,  on  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile,  by 
the  Rev.  T.  K.  Cheyne,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Oriel  Profes¬ 
sor  of  the  Interpretation  of  Holy  Scriptures  at  Ox¬ 
ford,  and  Canon  of  Rochester,  and  is  contained  in 
the  present  volume,  the  third  of  the  series.  These 
lectures  were  delivered  at  the  following  places  : 

Andover  (Andover  Theological  Seminary). 

Baltimore  (Johns  Hopkins  University). 

Boston  (Lowell  Institute). 

Brooklyn  (Brooklyn  Institute). 

Ithaca  (Cornell  University). 

New  Haven  (Yale  University). 

New  York  (Union  Theological  Seminary). 

Philadelphia  (University  of  Pennsylvania). 

Providence  (Brown  University  Lecture  Associ- 

Professor  Cheyne  is  one  of  the  leading  Biblical 


Announcement 


Vll 


scholars  of  the  day,  whose  contributions  to  the  criti¬ 
cal  study  of  the  Old  Testament  have  profoundly  in¬ 
fluenced  both  scholars  and  laymen,  and  needs  no 
introduction  to  the  public.  His  most  important 
publications  are  the  following :  The  Prophecies  of 
Isaiah ,  Job  and  Solomon ,  The  Book  of  Psalms ,  The 
Origin  and  Religious  Contents  of  the  Psalter  (Bamp- 
ton  Lectures,  1889),  The  Hallowing  of  Criticism , 
Jeremiah  and  his  Times ,  Introduction  to  the  Book  of 
Isaiah ,  and  a  new  critical  edition  of  the  text  of 
Isaiah  with  a  translation  and  commentary,  in  the  Poly¬ 
chrome  Bible . 

The  American  Lectures  on  the  History  of  Reli¬ 
gions  for  1898-1899  will  be  delivered  by  Prof.  Karl 
Budde,  Ph.D.,  of  Strasburg,  on  the  theme,  Reli¬ 
gious  Life  and  Thought  among  the  Hebrews  in  Pre- 
Exilic  Days.  The  lecturer  for  1899-1900  will  be 
Edouard  Naville,  of  Geneva,  the  well-known  Egypt¬ 
ologist. 

John  P.  Peters,  ]  Committee 

C.  H.  Toy,  on 

Morris  Jastrow,  Jr.,  J  Publication. 


May,  1898 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  I.  RELIGIOUS  LIFE  IN  JUD^A  BEFORE 
THE  ARRIVAL  OF  NEHEMIAH. 

PAG  B 

The  Judaean  population  before  Ezra’s  time — Inquiry  into  the  tone 
of  their  religion — Haggai  and  Zechariah — Completion  of  the 
second  temple — The  true  commencement  of  the  post-exilic 
period — Zerubbabel  put  forward  as  Messianic  king — At¬ 
titude  of  Zechariah  towards  fasting — His  theological  explan¬ 
ation  of  Israel’s  calamity — His  deficiencies  as  a  moralist 
made  good  by  “  Malachi  ” — Spiritual  improvement  in  the 
Jerusalem  community  ;  appearance  of  a  band  of  strict  observ¬ 
ers  of  Deuteronomy — Prophetic  record  of  an  attempt,  before 
that  of  Ezra,  to  stir  up  the  Babylonian  Jews — Contrast  be¬ 
tween  Ezekiel  and  Isa.  xlix.-lv. — The  former  more  influen¬ 
tial  at  Jerusalem  than  the  latter — Fresh  light  on  the  relations 
between  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans,  and  between  the  or¬ 
thodox  and  the  heretical  Jews — Nehemiah’s  violent  conduct 
towards  the  Samaritans  ;  its  explanation — Survey  of  results 
— The  Jewish  priest  Manasseh  ;  his  services  to  the  Samari¬ 
tans — Jews  and  Samaritans  compared — Their  unconscious 
agreement  as  to  the  essence  of  religion — Attitude  of  Jesus  to 
the  Jewish  law  and  to  individual  Samaritans  .  .  1-35 

LECTURE  II.  NEHEMIAH,  EZRA,  AND  MANASSEH  ; 
OR,  THE  RECONSTITUTION  OF  THE  JEWISH 
AND  THE  SAMARITAN  COMMUNITIES. 

The  exiles  in  Babylonia  not  deficient  in  patriotism — Their 
literary  occupations  directed  to  practical  objects — Object  of 
the  first  appendix  to  the  Second  Isaiah  (chaps,  xlix.-lv.) — 
More  directly  practical  spirit  of  the  Jews  who  visited  Nehe- 


IX 


X 


Contents 


PAGK 

miah,  a  butler  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus  (?) — Nehemiah’s 
character  and  work — His  statements  not  to  be  accepted  with¬ 
out  criticism.  Quite  probable  that  Jewish  prophets  had 
represented  Nehemiah  as  the  Messiah — Sanballat  at  first 
sincerely  desired  a  compromise — Nehemiah  probably  de¬ 
parted  when  the  wall  was  ready — He  must  have  been  missed  ; 
in  fact,  his  work  was  but  half  done — The  Samaritan  connec¬ 
tion  was  not  broken  off — Object  of  Ezra  and  his  companions 
—  The  formation  of  the  congregation — Reappearance  of 
Nehemiah  as  governor  or  high  commissioner — His  three 
practical  objects — Ezra’s  law-book — In  what  sense  it  can  be 
called  new — Its  object,  the  holiness  of  the  community — Law 
of  the  Day  of  Atonement  ;  its  strange  details — Ezra’s  book 
not  exclusively  legal — Religious  character  of  the  narratives 
of  the  introduction — The  new  ideals  of  the  “  humble  ones” 
in  the  lives  of  the  patriarchs,  rewritten  in  the  Priestly  Code, 
also  partly  in  the  life  of  Job — Sanctification  must  precede 
deliverance  ;  hence  a  minute  code  was  necessary  .  36-81 

LECTURE  III.  JEWISH  RELIGIOUS  IDEALS  ;  HIN¬ 
DRANCES  TO  THEIR  PERFECT  DEVELOPMENT. 

Troubles  of  the  Jews  in  the  post-exilic  period — A  religious 
compensation,  viz.,  the  increased  prominence  of  the  Israelit- 
ish  ideal  as  a  subject  of  meditation — Evidence  of  this  :  (1) 

A  cycle  of  four  songs  on  the  “  Servant  of  Jehovah  ”  inserted 
in,  and  interwoven  with,  Isa.  xl.-lv. — In  Isa.  lii. ,  13-liii.,  12, 
the  “Servant”  is  a  fusion  of  all  martyrs  and  confessors;  in 
xlii.,  1-4,  xlix.,  1-6,  1.,  4-9,  not  of  all,  but  of  those  only  who 
preached  and  expounded  the  religious  law — (2)  Prophecies 
of  the  Messianic  king — Early  history  of  this  form  of  belief — 

(3)  Psalms  of  the  “  Messianic  king”  or  “  Royal  psalms” — 
Sternness  of  the  foreign  policy  ascribed  to  the  Messiah — 
Accuracy  of  the  psalmist’s  descriptions  wrongly  denied — 
Heathen  oppressors — Division  of  the  Jews  into  the  wicked 
rich  and  the  righteous  poor  not  an  exhaustive  classification 
— The  latter  are  but  the  inner  circle  of  Israel  ;  around  them 
are  the  great  mass  of  less  perfect  Israelites,  who  need  the 
guidance  of  wiser  men  than  themselves  .  .  .  82-125 


Contents 


xi 


LECTURE  IV.  JEWISH  WISDOM  ;  ITS  MEANING,  OB¬ 
JECT,  AND  VARIETIES. 

PAGB 

Recognition  of  the  necessity  of  systematic  instruction  of  the 
young — Mythical  founder  of  the  “Wisdom-Literature” — 

One  of  the  chief  prerequisites  of  wisdom,  loving-kindness — 

The  want  of  this  makes  a  man  a  “  fool  ” — And  wide  as  is  the 
influence  of  the  wise,  it  does  not  extend  to  the  “fool” — 
Wisdom  and  prosperity  go  together — Religious  aspect  of  wis¬ 
dom — Proverbs,  like  the  Law,  presupposes  the  theory  of  earth¬ 
ly  retribution — Difficulty  of  the  Proverbs  respecting  the  king 
— No  systematic  Messianic  element  exists  in  Ecclesiasticus 
or  Proverbs — A  less  severely  practical  view  of  wisdom  (Prov. 
viii.,  22-31  ;  Job  xxviii.,  1-27  ;  xxxviii.,  xxxix.) — If  the  first 
part  of  wisdom  is  the  fear  of  Jehovah,  its  latter  part  has  a  wider 
range — The  inquisitive  spirit  finely  expressed  in  the  speeches 
of  Jehovah — Wisdom  moderates  the  divine  power — She  is 
herself  powerful  beyond  expression  ;  it  is  a  pastime  to  her  to 
elaborate  a  world — Affinities  of  these  strange  new  ideas — 

The  personification  of  wisdom  ;  Egyptian  and  especially  Per¬ 
sian  (Zoroastrian)  parallels  ;  Greek  parallels  less  appropriate — 

The  true  Book  of  Job — The  suggestiveness  of  the  story  only 
discovered  after  the  Exile — The  original  book  reconstructed  ; 
its  influence  on  Isa.  liii.  ;  parallelism  of  the  two  works — 
Considerations  which  led  to  the  insertion  of  the  dialogues — 
Change  in  the  conception  of  Job’s  character — The  writer 
refuted  (as  he  must  have  thought)  the  old  doctrine  of  unfail¬ 
ing  retribution — But  he  did  not  solve  the  problem  of  suffer¬ 
ing  ..........  126-172 

LECTURE  V.  ORTHODOX  AND  HERETICAL  WISDOM  ; 
CONTEMPORARY  LEVITICAL  PIETY. 

The  spirit  of  doubt  enters  Judaism  from  Greece — A  record  of  this 
in  Prov.  xxx.,  1-4 — The  author,  a  Hellenising  Jew,  a  proto¬ 
type  of  Goethe’s  Faust — Orthodox  protest  in  Prov.  xxx.,  5-9 
— Evidence  that  there  were  other  sceptical  writings  besides 
Agur’s  poem — Chief  among  these  is  Ecclesiastes — Difficulties 
of  the  book — How  much  religion  had  the  author? — He  is 


•  • 


Contents 


Xll 


PAG* 

no  atheist,  but  his  God  is  too  transcendental — He  has  also 
abandoned  the  belief  in  God’s  retributive  justice — Such  state¬ 
ments  as  Eccles.  vii.,  15  ;  viii.,  14,  pained  devout  readers — 
Hence  references  to  a  present  and  a  future  judgment  of  the 
wicked  were  interpolated — Unfortunate  consequence  of  this 
heterodoxy — God  remained,  but  he  could  only  fear  God,  not 
trust  Him — Yet  his  morality  is  not  the  lowest :  he  recom¬ 
mends  the  pleasures  of  the  table,  but  with  a  sad  irony — His 
social  sense  is  weak,  and  his  Jewish  feeling  almost  extinct — 
Opinions  divided  about  Ecclesiastes — Since  they  could  not 
suppress  the  book,  the  authorities  determined  to  mitigate  its 
heterodoxy  and  to  suggest  the  idea  that  the  speaker  is  a  blasf 
and  penitent  king — Addition  to  the  Epilogue — Date  of  the 
book  :  the  first  possible  periods  are  those  of  John  Hyrcanus 
(135-105)  and  Alexander  Jannaeus  (104-78) — Objections  to 
these — The  reign  of  Herod,  however,  gives  the  key  to  the 
book — The  author  a  philosophic  Sadducee — Strong  contrast 
offered  by  Ben  Sira  and  the  Chronicler — The  former  is 
more  legal  in  his  religion  than  the  earlier  moralists  ;  also 
more  eschatological — The  latter  is  a  Levite,  and  takes  a 
special  interest  in  some  of  the  functions  of  his  class — His 
belief  in  present  retribution  ;  interest  in  prophets  ;  warm 
piety  ..........  173-215 

LECTURE  VI  JUDAISM  :  ITS  POWER  OF  ATTRACTING 
FOREIGNERS;  ITS  HIGHER  ^THEOLOGY ;  ITS 
RELATION  TO  GREECE,  PERSIA,  AND  BABYLON. 

Contrast  between  the  missionary  ideal  of  the  “  Servant  ”  songs 
and  the  bitter  expressions  toward  foreigners  in  the  psalms 
of  the  late  Persian  period — Two  classes  of  persons  among  the 
“  nations” — Both  alike  are  “  forgetful  of  God,”  but  the  one 
longs  to  be  better  instructed,  the  other  breathes  out  threaten- 
ings  against  God’s  people — The  ideal  of  the  author  of  the 
“  Servant”  songs  was  also  that  of  the  writer  of  Jonah — Its 
more  practicable  object,  to  smooth  the  way  for  the  admis¬ 
sion  of  proselytes  at  Jerusalem  (Isaiah  1  vi. ,  1-5) — Book  of 
Ruth — Circumstances  favourable  to  an  influx  of  foreigners  be- 


Contents 


xm 


PAGE 

fore  the  Greek  period — Motives  of  proselytes  various — Hope 
of  a  life  after  death  for  the  righteous — The  poetical  books 
show  that  many  of  the  most  religious  and  cultured  persons 
held  out  against  the  new  belief — Even  the  Psalter,  which  we 
might  expect  to  find  more  hospitable  to  new  beliefs,  contains 
no  reference  to  Immortality  or  the  Resurrection — Down  to 
Simon  the  Maccabee,  Resurrection  and  Immortality  not  be¬ 
liefs  of  the  majority — Impressive  services  of  the  temple, 
helpful  to  religion  —  Superstitious  formalism;  how  the 
best  teachers  guarded  against  it — Ps.  xxvi.,  5-7;  Ps.  xv.  ; 
xxiv.,  1-6 — “Guests  of  Jehovah”  in  a  new  sense — Lib¬ 
eralising  effect  of  the  Dispersion — Conceptions  of  a  spiritual 
temple  and  spiritual  sacrifices — Prayer  and  praise,  the  true 
sacrifices  ;  to  which  add  the  study  of  the  Law — Growth  of 
veneration  for  the  Law — Reaction  against  Hellenism — Jew¬ 
ish  religion  always  susceptible  to  influences  from  without — 
Babylonia,  Persia,  Greece ;  their  several  contributions  to 
Judaism — The  Zoroastrian  hymns  compared  with  the  Psalms 
— Connection  of  these  inquiries  with  a  much  larger  one  :  the 
origin  and  nature  of  essential  Christianity  and  Judaism  216-261 

INDEX . 263 

INDEX  TO  BIBLICAL  PASSAGES . 266 


* 


NOTE  ON  THE  DATES  OF  THE  LITERA¬ 


TURE  REFERRED  TO. 


OR  the  convenience  of  the  reader  a  conspectus 


X  is  here  given  of  the  dates  of  ancient  writings 
referred  to. 

Haggdi  and  Zechariah.  Haggai,  Sept.-Dee.,  520 


B.c.,  Zech.  i.,  1-6,  520;  i.,  7-vi.,  15,  519;  vii., 


viii.,  518. 

Lamentations.  Lam.  i.,  ii.,  iv.,  v.,  in  their  present 
form  from  the  latter  part  of  the  Persian  period, 
but  probably  based  on  earlier  elegies. 

Isaiah  i-xxxix.,  Micah ,  etc.  Messianic  passages  of 
post-Exilic  origin.  Pre-Exilic  passages,  possi¬ 
bly  Jer.  xxiii.,  5,  6  (xxxiii.,  15,  16),  and  Exilic, 
certainly  Ezek.  xvii.,  22-24,  xxxiv.,  23  f.y 
xxxvii.,  24  f. 

Isaiah  xl.-lxvi.  Isa.  xl.-xlviii.  (mostly),  the  original 
Prophecy  of  the  prophetic  writer,  commonly, 
but  not  very  suitably,  named  the  Second  Isaiah. 
Written  soon  after  546  (?),  the  year  in  which 
Cyrus  left  Sardis.  Chaps,  xlix.-lv.,  an  appendix 
to  the  preceding  prophecy,  written  (like  Chaps, 
xl.-xlviii.)  in  Babylonia,  but  with  an  eye  to  the 
circumstances  of  Jerusalem.  The  cycle  of  poems 


XV 


xvi  Note  on  the  Dates  of  Literature 


on  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  (xlii.,  1-4;  xlix., 
1-6;  1.,  4-9;  Hi.,  13-liii.,  12)  probably  had  at  first 
an  independent  existence,  but  was  subsequently 
incorporated  by  an  early  writer  into  the  ex¬ 
panded  Prophecy  of  Restoration  (i.  e.,  Chaps, 
xl.-lv.).  Chaps,  lvi.-lxvi.  do  not  indeed  form  a 
single  work  with  a  unity  of  its  own,  but  (with 
the  probable  exception  of  lxiii.,  7-lxiv.,  12, 
which  is  of  still  later  date)  all  belong  to  differ¬ 
ent  parts  of  the  age  of  Nehemiah  and  Ezra. 

Malachi.  Shortly  before  the  arrival  of  Nehemiah 

(445  ?)• 

Gene  sis- Joshua.  Priestly  Code,  provisionally  com¬ 
pleted  by  Ezra  and  his  fellows  in  the  first  half 
of  the  5th  century. 

Ezra.  The  documents  in  Ezr.  v.,  vi.,  based  upon 
genuine  official  records.  Ezr.  vii.,  27-viii.,  34  is 
taken  from  the  Memoirs  of  Ezra  (5th  cent.). 

Nehemiah.  Neh.  i.,  1— vii.,  5,  xiii.,  6-31,  belong  to 
the  Memoirs  of  Nehemiah  (5th  cent.). 

Ruth  and  Jonah.  Not  long  after  Nehemiah  and 
Ezra. 

Psalms.  The  hymn-book  of  the  orthodox  commu¬ 
nity  founded  by  Ezra,  partly  of  the  late  Persian, 
partly  of  the  Greek  period. 

Job.  A  composite  work  of  the  late  Persian  or 
(more  probably)  early  Greek  period. 

Proverbs.  A  composite  work  of  the  Persian  and 
Greek  periods. 

Chronicles  (including  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  in  their 
present  form).  About  250. 


Note  on  the  Dates  of  Literature  xvii 


Daniel.  Age  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 

Ecclesiastes.  Not  improbably  of  the  age  of  Herod 
the  Great.  Further  research  necessary. 

Enoch.  Composite;  2d  and  1st  centuries  B.c. 

Psalms  of  Solomon.  Between  63  and  45.  B.C. 

For  further  details  see  Driver’s  Introduction  to  the 
Old  Testament  Literature ,  an  excellent  work, 
with  abundance  of  facts,  but  often  not  suffi¬ 
ciently  keen  in  its  criticism ;  and  compare 
the  Polychrome  Bible ,  edited  by  Haupt,  and 
the  Encyclopedia  Biblica  :  A  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible  (A.  &  C.  Black,  London). 


NOTE  ON  PAGE  1 52. 

For  a  new  translation  of  Job  xxxviii.,  29-34,  by  the 
present  writer,  see  Journal  of  Biblical  Litera¬ 
ture  (Boston,  U.  S.  A.),  1898.  The  names  of 
constellations  are  perhaps  more  correctly  given. 


PREFACE. 


THE  aim  of  the  writer  has  been  twofold  :  I,  to 
interest  the  public  at  large  in  the  history  of 
our  mother-religion,  the  Jewish  ;  and  2,  to  give  stu¬ 
dents  of  the  post-Exilic  period  a  synthesis  of  the 
best  critical  results  at  present  attainable,  and  so  to 
enable  them  to  judge  of  their  degree  of  probability. 
Perhaps  the  peculiarity  of  this  volume  consists  in  its 
union  of  these  two  objects.  It  is  possible  to  be  a 
successful  populariser  without  being  an  original  in¬ 
vestigator,  and  to  be  an  investigator  without  being  a 
specially  interesting  writer.  How  far  the  author  has 
realised  his  intentions,  it  is  for  others  to  determine. 
He  has  at  any  rate  desired  to  follow  the  advice  of  a 
French  Orientalist,*  “  not  to  content  ourselves  with 
ten  learned  readers  when  we  can  assemble  in  our 
audience  all  those  whom  the  past  of  the  human 
spirit  charms  and  attracts.” 

Why  the  writer  selected  the  period  of  the  Persian 
and  Greek  domination,  he  has  explained  in  the  first 
Lecture.  He  is  not  unaware  of  the  obscurity  of  the 


*  M.  Barbier  de  Meynard. 


XX 


Preface 


subject,  but  hopes  that  he  may  have  done  something 
to  diminish  it,  and  that  before  the  reader  arrives  at 
the  last  page  he  will  confess  that  the  post-Exilic 
period  is  not  so  barren  and  monotonous  as  he  had 
supposed.  The  writer  is  of  course  far  from  claiming 
finality  for  all  his  results.  No  historian  of  antiquity 
can  claim  such  finality ;  least  of  all  would  this  be 
fitting  when  the  material  is  so  fragmentary  and  of 
such  doubtful  interpretation  as  in  the  present  case. 
But  that  the  general  picture  here  offered  is  correct, 
may  safely  be  asserted,  and  many  things  to  which  a 
student  in  an  early  stage  may  take  most  exception 
are  among  those  which  can  be  most  successfully 
defended.  One  more  assurance  may  be  given. 
Should  any  friends  of  religion  suspect  the  writer  of 
a  want  of  sympathy  with  them,  they  will  be  almost 
more  in  error  than  those  who  may  accuse  him  of 
critical  arbitrariness.  It  is  indeed  in  order  to  stimu¬ 
late  a  more  general  appreciation  of  Jewish  piety 
that  these  pages  have  been  written.  Such  an  ap¬ 
preciation  cannot  be  without  a  beneficial  influence 
on  popular  religion. 

What  the  religious  life  of  the  Jews  was  previously 
to  the  arrival  of  Nehemiah  is  set  forth  in  Lecture  I., 
which  is,  therefore,  though  abounding  in  new  facts, 
perhaps  the  least  interesting  from  a  novel-reader’s 
point  of  view.  The  noblest  religious  ideals  and  ideas 


Preface 


xxi 


of  the  early  Judaism  may  be  sought  for  in  Lectures 
III.  and  VI.  The  story  of  the  Jewish  reformation, 
as  a  keen  but  (it  is  hoped)  not  too  keen  criticism 
represents  it,  will  be  found  in  Lecture  II.  The  or¬ 
thodox  and  sceptical  varieties  of  what  may,  in  a  cer¬ 
tain  sense,  be  called  Jewish  philosophy,  have  their 
turn  of  consideration  in  Lectures  IV.  and  V.  In  the 
closing  Lecture,  besides  a  new  treatment  of  the  most 
interesting  sections  of  early  Jewish  theology,  the 
author  has  given  a  sketch  (as  accurate,  perhaps,  as 
the  comparative  study  of  religions  will  as  yet  per¬ 
mit)  of  the  relations  of  Judaism  to  the  other  great 
religions  which  confronted  it  in  the  post-Exilic  pe¬ 
riod.  A  very  full  syllabus  will  enable  the  reader 
quickly  to  follow  the  thread  of  the  narrative. 

These  six  lectures  were  originally  delivered  be¬ 
tween  November,  1897,  and  January,  1898,  at  nine 
places  in  the  United  States  of  America,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  American  Committee.  They  are 
now  presented  in  a  somewhat  enlarged  form,  and 
with  the  most  necessary  notes,  to  a  wider  public. 
They  are  the  provisional  summing  up  of  a  series 
of  special  researches,  but  it  is  hoped  that  their  un- 
technical  form  may  render  them  interesting  to  those 
who  have  no  leisure  for  profound  critical  study. 

T.  K.  C. 


JEWISH  RELIGIOUS  LIFE 
AFTER  THE  EXILE. 


LECTURE  I. 

Religious  Life  in  Judaea  before  the  Arrival  of 

Nehemiah. 

I  BRING  before  you  a  subject  which  was  not  long 
since  in  some  danger  of  passing  into  disrepute. 
Which  of  us  does  not  think  with  pain  of  the  weari¬ 
some  Scripture  history  lessons  of  his  childhood  ? 
No  doubt  some  improvement  has  been  effected  by 
throwing  the  light  of  travel  and  archaeology  on  the 
externals  of  Scripture  narratives,  but  though  I  con¬ 
gratulate  the  young  scholars  of  to-day  on  the  greater 
interestingness  of  their  lessons,  I  cannot  profess  to 
be  satisfied.  For  the  unnaturalness  of  the  prevalent 
conception  of  Scripture  history  still  remains,  and  it 
is  not  as  a  collection  of  picturesque  tales  that  the 
narratives  of  the  Old  Testament  will  reconquer  their 
position  in  the  educated  world.  What  a  modern 


2 


Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


thinker  most  desires  to  learn  from  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  is  the  true  history  of  Jewish  religion,  and  this 
can  only  be  obtained  by  applying  the  methods  of 
modern  criticism  to  the  old  Hebrew  documents. 
Could  this  course  be  adopted,  not  only  in  learned 
academic  works,  but  in  popular  lectures  and  hand¬ 
books  ;  could  the  Old  Testament  be  treated  in  a 
thoroughly  modern  spirit,  at  once  sympathetically 
and  critically,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  this  ven¬ 
erable  religious  record  would  recover  its  old  fascina¬ 
tion.  Such  is  the  spirit  in  which  I  enter  upon  this 
discussion.  If  I  cannot  present  you  with  absolute 
truth,  I  can  at  least  be  sympathetic  and  critical. 

My  readers  will,  I  hope,  pardon  me  if  I  address 
three  requests  to  them.  The  first  is,  that  they  will 
meet  confidence  with  confidence,  and  believe  that  I 
have  no  other  object  but  to  tell  the  reconstructed 
history  of  Jewish  religion  frankly  and  interestingly, 
so  far  as  I  know  it.  Next  I  plead  for  a  renewed  study, 
simultaneously  with  the  reading  of  this  historical 
sketch,  of  the  letter  of  the  Bible  records.  And,  lastly, 
I  ask  that  references  should  be  made  privately  to  some 
good  compendium  *  of  the  elementary  results  of  mod- 

*  The  two  Dictionaries  of  the  Bible,  announced  by  Messrs.  T.  and 
F.  Clark  and  Messrs.  A.  and  C.  Black,  respectively,  may  be  suggested. 
Some  articles  in  the  latter,  of  which  the  present  writer  is  one  of  the 
editors,  are  referred  to  elsewhere  in  this  volume.  Vol.  I.  of  the 
former  has  just  appeared. 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


3 


ern  Biblical  criticism.  For  if  I  were  to  be  perpetu¬ 
ally  turning  aside  to  explain  such  phrases  as  the 
Second  Isaiah,  or  to  discuss  the  problems  of  origin 
and  authorship,  the  unity  of  these  lectures  would  be 
seriously  injured,  and  their  object  of  worthily  tra¬ 
cing  the  history  of  some  phases  of  a  great  religion 
would  be  proportionally  obscured. 

I  shall  not,  however,  be  surprised  if  some  of  my 
readers  should  smile  at  my  last  requirement.  I  cer¬ 
tainly  hope  that  advanced  students  will  expect  from 
me  some  direct  furtherance  of  critical  study,  and  not 
merely  a  repetition  of  the  contents  of  the  handbooks. 
The  subject  which  I  have  chosen  bristles  with  criti¬ 
cal  difficulties,  and  even  a  constructive  historical 
sketch  may  be  expected  to  reveal  something  of  the 
author’s  critical  basis.  It  was  indeed  the  difficulty  of 
the  subject  which  partly  attracted  me  ;  it  gives  such 
ample  scope  for  fresh  pioneering  work.  At  the  same 
time  enough  solid  results  have,  as  I  believe,  been  ob¬ 
tained  to  serve  as  a  historical  framework.  I  have  also 
thought  that  students  of  this  period  may  be  glad  to 
have  before  them  that  complex  phenomenon  which 
can  be  explained  more  fully  from  the  facts  of  the  earlier 
period.  For  that  epoch  a  larger  amount  of  material 
will  be  at  their  disposal.  They  will  have  not  only 
the  Biblical  records  but  also  much  precious  collateral 
information  from  Oriental  archaeology.  But  in  the 


4  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


study  of  this  period  I  shall  generally  have  to  con¬ 
tent  myself  with  the  post-exilic  religious  writings, 
though  I  am  happy  in  the  belief  that  we  understand 
these  to-day  much  better  than  we  did  formerly. 
Criticism  has  produced  and  is  still  producing  results 
of  permanent  value,  results  which  it  is  my  hope  to 
weave  together  and  elucidate  for  historical  purposes 
by  the  combined  use  of  the  two  sister  faculties — 
common  sense  and  the  imagination. 

Let  no  one  indulge  in  a  cheap  sarcasm  on  imagin¬ 
ative  criticism  :  the  uses  of  the  imagination  are  well 
understood  by  the  greatest  of  our  scientists  and  his¬ 
torians.*  Even  in  exegesis  a  happy  intuition  often 
pours  a  flood  of  light  on  an  obscure  passage,  and  a 
similar  remark  is  still  more  applicable  to  historical 
reconstruction.  These  intuitions  are  not  purely 
accidental.  They  spring,  in  exegesis,  from  sympa¬ 
thy  with  an  author,  and  a  sense  of  what  he  can  and 
what  he  cannot  have  said  ;  in  history,  from  a  sedu¬ 
lously  trained  imaginative  sense  of  antiquity  sup¬ 
ported  by  a  large  command  of  facts. 

One  point  more  should  be  frankly  stated  at  the 
outset.  It  is,  I  believe,  essential  to  the  investigator 
of  Hebrew  antiquity  that  he  should  work  upon  cor¬ 
rected  texts,  and  even  to  the  most  modest  and  unas- 

*  “  The  imagination.  .  .  .  mother  of  all  history  as  well  as  of 

all  poetry.”  Mommsen,  Romische  Geschichte,  v.  5. 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


5 


piring  of  students  that  he  should  have  access  to 
translations  (more  than  one,  if  possible)  of  such  cor¬ 
rected  texts.  An  American  professor  is  now  making 
a  brave  attempt,  with  an  army  of  assistants,  to  meet 
this  want  of  students,  but  not  much  of  the  result 
has  as  yet  come  under  my  notice.  I  have  therefore 
frequently  had  to  give  a  new  translation  of  my  own, 
based  on  a  corrected  text  of  my  own,  which  I  beg 
you  to  compare  later  on  with  that  in  Prof.  Haupt’s 
Bible.*  I  now  proceed  to  my  subject. 

Much  uncertainty  rests  upon  the  beginning  of  the 
post-exilic  period.  That  Cyrus  should  have  wished 
to  restrain  members  of  the  Jewish  people  from  re¬ 
turning  to  the  home  of  their  fathers,  is  against  all 
that  we  know  of  his  character  and  principles.  The 
recently  discovered  cuneiform  inscription  of  Cyrus 
does  not  indeed  throw  any  clear  light  on  this  matter, 
but  the  spirit,  which  is  there  ascribed  to  the  great  con¬ 
queror,  is  kindly  and  tolerant.  That  the  disciples  of 
Ezekiel — the  first  projector,  not  to  say  the  founder, 

*  The  Polychrome  Bible ,  edited  by  Prof.  Paul  Haupt,  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  Baltimore.  The  translations  from  Isaiah  in 
this  volume  generally  agree  with  the  version  in  the  work  just  referred 
to  ;  those  from  the  Psalms,  with  a  version,  to  a  large  extent  based 
upon  a  corrected  text,  which  the  present  writer  hopes  shortly  to  pub¬ 
lish  with  justificatory  notes.  The  corrections  of  the  text  of  Job  and 
Proverbs  here  adopted,  will  be  found  in  the  Expositor  for  June  and 
July,  1897,  and  in  the  Jewish  Quarterly  Review  for  July  and  Octo¬ 
ber,  1897,  (referred  to  as  J.  Q.  R.). 


6  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


of  the  church-nation,  a  legislator  as  well  as  a  prophet 
— should  have  had  no  inclination  and  have  made  no 
attempt  to  carry  out  their  master’s  legal  principles 
in  the  Holy  Land  itself,  is  scarcely  credible.  And 
for  those  who  were  both  able  and  willing  to  take  the 
journey,  there  was  an  opportunity  presented  when 
Sheshbazzar,  or  less  incorrectly,  Sanabassar  (as  the 
best  Greek  authorities  give  the  name),  a  Babylonian 
Jew  of  Davidic  descent,  was  sent  to  Jerusalem  by 
Cyrus,  in  accordance  with  his  conciliatory  policy,  as 
governor  of  J udaea.  For  this  high  functionary  would 
of  course  be  accompanied  by  a  suite.  One  of  those 
who  went  with  him  was  certainly  his  nephew,  Zerub- 
babel,and  it  is  very  possible  that  the  other  persons 
who  are  mentioned  with  Zerubbabel  in  a  certain  fa¬ 
mous  list*  as  “  heads  ”  of  the  Jews  in  the  “  province  ” 
are  really  historical.  Of  those  other  leaders  (eleven  in 
number)  the  best  known  is  Jeshua  or  Joshua,  who 
became  the  first  high  priest  in  the  post-exilic  sense. 
We  must  of  course  suppose  that  the  “heads  ”  went 
up  with  their  families  and  dependents,  so  that 
they  would  form  altogether  a  considerable  party, 
though  not  large  enough  materially  to  affect  the 
character  of  the  Judaean  community.  That  as  a  fact, 
the  party  was  not  in  this  sense  influential,  seems  to 

*  Ezr.  ii. ,  2  ;  Neh.  vii.,  7  ;  1  Esdr.  v.,  8  (where  the  Greek  expresses 
the  term  “  heads  ”). 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


7 


me  a  necessary  inference  from  the  prophecies  of 
Haggai  and  Zechariah. 

These  prophets  had  for  their  aim,  to  stir  the  peo¬ 
ple  up  to  rebuild  the  ruins  of  the  temple.  The  work 
was  accomplished,  and  it  is  plain  from  the  records 
that  the  builders,  mostly  at  any  rate,  were  not  re¬ 
turned  exiles,  but  those  inhabitants  of  Judah  who 
had  not  been  carried  away  by  Nebuchadrezzar  to 
Babylon. 

Thus  in  a  few  words  I  have  stated  what  I  believe 
to  be  the  truth  respecting  much  debated  facts.*  The 
traditional  account  is,  I  regret  to  say,  to  a  large  extent 
untrustworthy.  Tradition  has  partly  imagined  facts 
where  there  were  none,  partly  exaggerated  the  really 
existing  facts.  I  must  not  pause  to  explain  the 
grounds  on  which  I  have  made  these  statements,  be¬ 
cause  my  proper  subject  is  not  the  external  but  the  in¬ 
ternal  history  of  the  Jews,  and  the  facts  which  I  have 
stated,  to  the  best  of  my  belief  correctly,  are  to  me 
just  now  of  importance  simply  as  providing  the  back¬ 
ground  for  certain  phases  of  Jewish  religious  life. 
And  I  at  once  proceed  to  ask,  What  was  the  religious 
tone  of  the  unhappy  remnant  of  the  old  people  of 
Judah  ? 

♦Compare  the  article  “  Israel,  History  of,”  in  Messrs.  A.  &  C. 
Black’s  expected  Encyclopedia  Biblicat  and  the  “Prologue”  to 
Cheyne’s  Introduction  to  the  Book  of  Isaiah. 


8  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


The  answer  is  furnished  by  the  prophet  Haggai, 
who,  as  we  have  seen,  joined  Zechariah  in  a  practical 
appeal  to  the  people  of  Jerusalem.  The  response 
which  he  met  with  was  by  no  means  encouraging, 
and  the  lukewarmness  of  the  citizens  seemed  to  him 
blameworthy.  He  lets  us  see,  however,  that  they 
reasoned  on  the  subject,  and  had  an  excuse  for  their 
conduct.  They  were  agriculturists,  and  had  had  to 
contend  with  a  succession  of  troubles,  which  seemed 
to  show  but  too  plainly  that  Jehovah  was  angry 
with  them,  and  they  declined  to  take  action  without 
a  clear  sign  of  his  restored  favour.  “  The  time  is  not 
come,”  they  said, “  to  build  the  temple  of  Jehovah”  ; 
Jehovah,  they  thought,  would  indicate  the  right 
time  by  sending  the  Messiah.  It  was  only  Haggai 
and  Zechariah  who,  as  they  themselves  believed,  un¬ 
derstood  aright  the  signs  of  the  times.  Even  Zerub- 
babel  (who  by  the  year  520  B.c.  had  succeeded  his 
uncle  as  governor)  and  Jeshua,  the  newly-made  high 
priest,  had  to  be  stirred  up  like  the  rest,  to  undertake 
the  work  of  rebuilding  the  sacred  house.  Some  sort 
of  house  (the  term  is  flexible  in  Semitic  languages) 
there  may  for  a  long  time  past  have  been,  and  this 
miserable  substitute  for  a  temple  may  have  satisfied 
them.  They  were  doubtless  infected  by  the  general 
despondency,  and  shrank  from  the  labour  and  expense 
of  building  a  true  temple,  till  it  was  certain  that  the 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


9 


time  had  come.  Although  they  had  come  from 
Babylon,  the  headquarters  of  Jewish  piety,  they  had 
none  of  the  religious  intensity  and  settled  enthusiasm 
of  the  disciples  of  Ezekiel. 

I  am  sorry  I  cannot  give  a  more  romantic  story, 
or  gratify  the  reasonable  expectations  of  students  of 
the  Second  Isaiah.*  The  Jews  of  Judaea  at  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  our  period  were  poor  specimens  of  relig¬ 
ious  humanity,  and  the  events  of  their  history  are  in 
themselves  not  very  interesting.  But  the  dull  periods 
are  necessary  as  transitions  to  the  bright  ones,  and 
surely  dull  people  have  their  own  allotted  part,  which 
the  historian  ought  somehow  to  make  interesting. 
I  therefore  beg  the  reader  to  notice  that  there  was  a 
genuine  religious  spirit  in  the  poor  remnant  of  Judah, 
though  Haggai  thought  it  very  insufficient.  We 
can  hardly  doubt  that,  on  however  slender  a  scale 
and  with  however  much  ritual  irregularity,  sacrifices 
had  been  persistently  offered  on  the  sacred  site  al¬ 
most  throughout  the  sad  years  of  the  past.f  Be¬ 
sides,  one  of  our  records  incidentally  refers  to  the  fact 
that  fasting  $  had  been  regularly  practised  long  before 

*  “  Second  Isaiah  ”  is  the  name  given  to  the  author  of  the  Prophecy 
of  Restoration  in  Isa.  xl.-xlviii. 

fThe  silence  of  our  scanty  documents  is  no  evidence  to  the 
contrary. 

\  Fasting  was  one  of  the  most  esteemed  methods  of  renewing  an 
impaired  connection  with  the  Deity. 


io  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


520  B.c.  The  reference  occurs  in  the  7th  chapter  of 
Zechariah.  The  passage  well  deserves  attention  ;  it 
contains  some  remarkable  statements,  and  the  his¬ 
torical  background  (to  which  I  shall  return  later)  is 
really  exciting  to  the  imagination. 

“  In  the  fourth  year  of  King  Darius,  on  the  fourth 
day  of  the  ninth  month  Kislev,  a  divine  oracle  came  to 
Zechariah.  This  was  the  occasion.  Bel-sarezer  and 
Raam-melech  had  sent  men  to  propitiate  Jehovah,  (and) 
to  ask  the  priests  of  Jehovah’s  house  and  the  prophets 
this  question, — Should  I  weep  in  the  fifth  month  abstain¬ 
ing  from  food,  as  I  have  done  already  so  many  years  ? 
Then  it  was  that  this  divine  oracle  came  to  me,  Speak 
thus  to  all  the  people  of  the  land  and  to  the  priests.” 

I  break  off  here  in  order  to  bring  out  three  points 
of  some  importance.  The  first  is  the  high  position 
of  Zechariah.  The  days  of  prophetic  authority  are 
numbered,  and  yet  here  is  a  prophet  whose  words 
are  still  law  both  to  the  laity  and  to  the  priests. 
The  second  is  the  unanimity  of  the  priests  of  Je¬ 
hovah  and  the  native  Jewish  laity  as  to  the  high 
religious  worth  of  fasting.  And  the  third  is  the 
fact  that  the  senders  of  the  deputation  *  (whose  real 
names  I  can  show  to  be  Bel-sarezer  and  Raam- 

*  They  are  two  of  the  twelve  “heads,”  who  accompanied  Sana- 
bassar.  See  the  articles  “  Sarezer  ”  and  “  Regem-melech  ”  in  the 
Encyclopedia  Biblica.  Of  course,  the  historical  character  of  Jeshua, 
and  Bilshan  (Bel-sarezer),  and  Raamiah  (Regem-melech)  only  con¬ 
stitutes  a  presumption  of  the  historicity  of  the  other  names. 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea  n 

melech)  endorse  the  statement  that  up  to  this  time 
(z.  e.,  B.c.  518)  the  hard  lot  of  the  Jews  has  had  no 
sensible  alleviation. 

The  incident  described  by  Zechariah  shows  plainly 
enough  that  there  was  no  lack  of  religious  feeling 
at  Jerusalem.  We  may  be  sure,  too,  that  the  little 
band  of  religious  singers  did  its  best  to  give  expres¬ 
sion  to  this  feeling.  Very  possibly  the  so-called 
Lamentations,  with  the  exception  of  the  third,  are 
based  on  the  elegies  which  were  chanted  on  the 
commemorative  fast-days  alluded  to  by  the  deput¬ 
ation  to  Zechariah. 

More  ancient  than  this,  I  cannot  venture  to  make 
these  interesting  poems.  Striking  as  the  picture  of 
Jeremiah  seated  on  the  ruins  of  Jerusalem  and  in¬ 
diting  monodies  may  be,  it  is  too  romantic  to  be 
true.  Delightful  as  it  would  be  to  find  at  least  five 
works  of  a  virtually  pre-exilic  religious  poet,  we  must 
confess  that,  on  internal  grounds,  the  Lamentations 
in  their  present  form  come  from  a  not  very  early 
part  of  the  post-exilic  period. 

Thus,  our  only  authorities  for  the  tone  of  the 
earliest  post-exilic  Judaean  religion  are  the  prophecies 
of  Haggai  and  of  the  first  or  true  Zechariah.  Though 
devoid  of  literary  charm,  they  are  of  much  historical 
importance,  because  they  stand  on  the  dividing  line 
between  the  exilic  and  the  post-exilic  periods.  It  is 


12  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


a  mistaken  assertion  that  the  post-exilic  age  begins 
with  the  so-called  “  edict  of  Cyrus  ”  in  B.c.  537*  If 
there  was  a  post-exilic  age  at  all,  it  should  rather  be 
reckoned  from  the  completion  of  the  second  temple 
in  B.C.  516.  For  the  true  exile  of  the  Jews  was  their 
sense  of  banishment  from  their  God,  and  this  painful 
consciousness  began  to  be  mitigated  as  soon  as  a 
house  had  been  prepared  for  Jehovah  to  dwell  in. 
“  It  is  not  time  yet  to  build,”  said  the  people  of  the 
land,  but  the  prophets  believed  that  the  faith  and 
love  which  the  effort  of  building  the  temple  presup¬ 
posed  would  exert  a  moral  attraction  upon  Jehovah. 
At  any  moment  after  the  coping  had  been  laid  the 
King  of  Glory  might  be  expected  to  come  in. 
Therefore  I  say  that  Haggai  and  Zechariah  inaugu¬ 
rate  the  post-exilic  period. 

Nor  must  we  underrate  the  prophetic  gift  of  these 
men.  They  are  still,  in  virtue  of  their  office,  the 
most  imposing  figures  in  the  community,  and  they 
still  possess,  in  some  degree,  that  consciousness  of  a 
special  relation  to  God  which  characterised  the  great 
prophets  of  old.  They  could  have  said  with  Amos, 
‘‘The  Lord  Jehovah  does  nothing  without  first  re¬ 
vealing  his  secret  to  his  servants  the  prophets.”  * 

And  that  very  sign  of  Jehovah’s  restored  favour 
which  the  people  desiderated,  the  prophets  Haggai 

*  Am.  iii.,  7. 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


13 


and  Zechariah  believed  themselves  to  have  seen — 
it  was  the  sign  of  general  unrest  among  the  popula¬ 
tions  of  the  Persian  empire. 

Let  us  first  of  all  see  what  Haggai,  with  whom 
his  colleague  Zechariah  fully  agrees,  has  to  declare. 

“  Yet  a  little  while,  saith  Jehovah  Sabaoth,  and  I  will 
shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth  and  the  sea  and  the  dry 
land  ;  and  I  will  shake  all  nations,  and  the  treasures  of 
all  nations  will  come,  and  I  will  fill  this  house  with  mag¬ 
nificence,  saith  Jehovah  Sabaoth  ”  (Hag.  ii.,  6,  7). 

Two  months  later  another  oracle  or  revelation  comes 
to  him, — 

“  Speak  to  this  effect  to  Zerubbabel,  governor  of 
Judah  ;  I  will  shake  the  heavens  and  the  earth  ;  I  will 
overthrow  royal  thrones,  and  destroy  the  strength  of  the 
kingdoms  of  the  nations.  ...  In  that  day,  saith 
Jehovah  Sabaoth,  I  will  take  thee,  O  Zerubbabel  my  ser¬ 
vant,  saith  Jehovah,  and  will  make  thee  as  a  signet  ;  for 
I  have  chosen  thee,  saith  Jehovah  Sabaoth”  (Hag.  ii., 
21-23). 

The  meaning  of  Haggai  is  unmistakable.  That 
political  insight,  by  which  the  prophets  interpret 
the  impulses  of  the  spirit,  recognises  in  the  disturb¬ 
ances  of  the  peoples  the  initial  stage  of  the  great 
Judgment  Day.  The  story  of  these  disturbances 
has  been  recovered  for  us  by  cuneiform  research. 
At  the  very  time  when  Haggai  and  Zechariah  came 
forward  (it  was  just  after  the  accession  of  Darius) 


14  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


revolts  were  breaking  out  in  different  parts  of  the 
Persian  empire.* 

At  Babylon,  for  instance,  a  man  called  Nidintu- 
Bel  (i.  e.,  Gift  of  Bel)  had  in  521  seized  the  crown  of 
Nebuchadrezzar,  whose  name  he  assumed  and  whose 
descendant  he  professed  to  be.  Now  in  this  pseudo- 
Nebuchadrezzar,  Haggai  can  hardly  have  felt  a  per¬ 
sonal  interest.  But  as  a  sign  of  the  breaking  up  of 
the  Persian  empire  he  may  well  have  greeted  the 
pretender’s  appearance  with  enthusiasm,  and  when 
in  519  (soon  after  Haggai  and  Zechariah  had  proph¬ 
esied  so  blithely)  the  revolt  of  the  Babylonians  was 
put  down,  and  when,  about  515,  a  second  revolt,  led 
by  another  pretender, f  was  extinguished,  the  leaders 
of  the  Jews  may  be  excused  if  they  felt  the  pangs  of 
disappointment.  It  had  seemed  as  if  a  new  day 
were  about  to  dawn,  when  the  glory  of  Jehovah 
would  again  fill  his  temple,  and  when  Zerubbabel, 
the  Messianic  king,  would  surpass  the  splendour 
even  of  ancient  David. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  there  is  direct  evidence 


*  Persia,  Susiana,  Media,  and  Babylonia  are  specially  mentioned, 
f  This  second  pretender  also  claimed  to  be  Nebuchadrezzar,  son  of 
Nabu-na’id.  “  It  is  clear,”  as  Dr.  J.  P.  Peters  remarks,  “that 
Nebuchadrezzar  was  a  name  to  conjure  by  in  Babylonia,  so  that  when 
a  man  sought  to  raise  a  revolt,  he  laid  claim  to  this  name  as  a  sure 
means  of  arousing  popular  sentiment  in  his  favour.”  {Journal  of 
Biblical  Literature,  1897,  p.  113  ) 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


15 


of  this  in  the  Bible  itself.  The  prophet  Zechariah 
mentions  the  arrival  at  Jerusalem  of  four  Jews  (prob¬ 
ably  the  leaders  of  a  party)  with  gifts  of  silver  and 
gold  from  the  wealthy  Babylonian  settlements.  The 
treasure  was  converted,  in  accordance  with  a  divine 
direction,  into  a  crown  for  Zerubbabel.*  This  Davidic 
prince,  be  it  remembered,  had  already  received  the 
Messianic  name  Branch  or  Sprout  f  which  had  been 
coined  perhaps  by  Jeremiah,  and  all  that  remained 
was  to  anoint  him  and  announce  his  accession  to  the 
people.  Whether  the  public  announcement  was  ever 
made  in  a  form  which  could  be  called  treasonable,  we 
know  not.  But  it  is  not  improbable  that  a  later  edi¬ 
tor,  who  did  not  comprehend  the  passage  and  wished 
to  suggest  a  possible  historical  reference,  has  put  the 
name  of  Joshua  instead  of  Zerubbabel  into  the  text. 

There  is  yet  another  historical  fact  which  deserves 
to  be  mentioned.  It  is  recorded  in  Ezr.  v. — and  I 
see  no  reason  here  for  scepticism — that  Tatnai  or 
Sisines,  the  satrap  of  Syria,  endeavoured  to  stop  the 
building  of  the  temple  ;  I  am  inclined  to  bring  this 
fact  into  connection  with  the  sudden  disappearance 
of  Zerubbabel.  This  prince  was  no  doubt  a  Persian 

*  Zech.  vi.,  9-12,  where  read  in  ver.  n,  “  make  crowns,  and  set 
them  on  the  heads  of  Zerubbabel.”  The  text  has  suffered  corrup¬ 
tion.  See  article  “Zerubbabel”  in  Messrs.  A.  &  C.  Black’s  Ency¬ 
clopedia  Biblica,  where  another  possible  view  is  indicated. 

f  Zech.  iii.,  8  ;  cf.  vi.,  12. 


1 6  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


governor,  but  he  was  also  by  birth  and  religion 
a  Jew,  and  we  should  have  expected  to  find  him, 
and  not  Bel-sarezer  and  Raam-melech,  sending  that 
deputation  to  the  temple  which  is  referred  to  by 
Zechariah.  The  fact  that  two  inferior  functionaries, 
and  not  Zerubbabel,  are  mentioned,  suggests  the  idea 
that  the  latter  may  have  been  suspected  of  treason, 
and  have  been  recalled  by  Darius,  and  the  additional 
fact  that  the  satrap  Tatnai  sought  to  stop  the  build¬ 
ing  of  the  temple  is  equally  suggestive  of  a  belief  in 
the  disloyalty  of  the  Jews.  It  is  a  further  confirma¬ 
tion  of  this  theory  that  we  find  Sanballat  warning 
Nehemiah  that  he  was  in  danger  of  being  informed 
against,  on  account  of  prophetic  announcements 
that  there  was  a  king  in  Judah  (Neh.  vi.,  7). 

I  cannot  help  feeling  a  reverent  pity  for  the  dis¬ 
illusionment  of  Zechariah,  and  a  respect  for  his 
truthfulness  in  not  omitting  to  record  his  mistake. 
True,  it  is  not  quite  impossible  that  he  minimised 
his  error.  He  may  have  considered  that  he  had 
only  been  mistaken  as  to  the  time  of  the  fulfilment 
of  the  prophecy,  and  have  clung  to  his  belief  in 
Zerubbabel’s  Messianic  character.  But  the  sense 
of  even  a  partial  mistake  must  have  been  painful, 
and  we  are  not  surprised  at  the  want  of  enthusiasm 
which  marks  his  reply  to  the  deputation.  The 
reported  objects  of  the  embassy  are  equally  sug- 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea  17 

gestive  of  mental  depression.  One  of  them  was  “  to 
propitiate  Jehovah,”  which  implies  that  Jehovah 
was  not  considered  altogether  friendly,  and  another, 
to  ask  a  question  about  fasting,  designed  apparently 
to  extract  from  the  prophets  some  word  of  good 
cheer  for  the  future.  The  laity,  it  seems,  would 
gladly  have  given  up  commemorative  fast-days  if 
only  they  could  have  been  sure  that  “  the  Lord 
whom  they  sought  ”  would  speedily  “  come  to  his 
temple.”  The  question  was  asked  before  the  fast 
of  the  fifth  month,  but  Zechariah  delayed  his  oracu¬ 
lar  response  till  the  fast  of  the  seventh  month  was 
over.  It  is  evident  that  he  felt  the  difficulty  of  the 
religious  situation.  The  inward  calm  required  in  a 
recipient  of  the  prophetic  afflatus  but  slowly  returned 
to  him.  His  reply,  when  it  came,  was  twofold. 
First,  he  assured  the  people,  in  the  spirit  of  Isaiah, 
that  Jehovah  cared  not  whether  they  fasted,  or  not. 
Next,  he  told  them  that  Jehovah  was  keenly  inter¬ 
ested  in  his  people,  and  would  certainly  return,  to 
which  he  added  an  exhortation  to  obey  the  moral 
precepts  of  the  old  prophets,  such  as  Isaiah  and 
Jeremiah.  He  did  not  however  make  it  sufficiently 
clear  that,  according  to  the  old  prophets,  no  salva¬ 
tion  could  come  to  an  unreformed  people,  and 
Haggai  is  not  reported  to  have  given  any  such 
moral  exhortation  at  all. 


1 8  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Great  prophets  they  certainly  are  not ;  their  liter¬ 
ary  style  is  miserable,  and  their  spirit  shows  a 
sad  falling  off  as  compared  with  that  of  the  older 
prophets.  Zechariah  is  the  greater  of  the  two,  but 
even  he  is  deficient  in  moral  energy,  and  shows 
traces  of  a  doctrine  which  in  the  hands  of  a  weak 
moralist  may  be  most  injurious, — I  mean,  dualism. 
He  thinks  that  the  colossal  calamity  of  Israel  is  due 
to  the  agency  of  a  heavenly  being  called  the  Satan, 
whose  function  it  is  to  remind  God  of  human  sins 
which  he  might  otherwise  be  glad  to  forget.  This 
notion  might  have  been  harmless  if  it  had  been 
coupled  with  the  belief  (which  we  find  in  the  great 
Elihu-poem  inserted  in  the  Book  of  Job)  that  there 
was  also  another  angelic  agent  whose  business  it 
was  to  save  sinners  by  leading  them  to  repentance 
(Job  xxxiii.,  23,  24).  But  not  being  so  coupled,  it 
led  to  a  weakened  view  of  moral  responsibility  and 
of  the  need  of  moral  reformation.  We  also  find 
Zechariah  making  a  singular  misuse  of  the  poetic 
faculty  of  personification.  He  regards  the  wicked¬ 
ness  of  his  countrymen  as  too  great  to  be  the  product 
of  mere  human  nature.  There  must,  he  thinks,  be 
an  evil  principle  called  Wickedness,  which  causes  all 
this  superabundance  of  iniquity.  And  in  a  vision 
(Zech.  v.,  5-1 1)  he  actually  sees  this  principle  incar¬ 
nate  in  the  form  of  a  woman,  who  is  seated  in  a 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


*9 


vessel  of  a  ton  weight,  and  is  then  suddenly  thrown 
down,  while  the  lid  is  shut  to.  Then  she  is  borne 
by  two  women  with  storks’  wings  to  the  land  of 
Shinar  (i.  e.y  Babylonia)  that  she  may  dwell  there, 
and  so  bring  the  ruin  upon  Babylonia  which  she 
now  threatens  to  bring  upon  the  land  of  the  Jews. 

Still  from  this  time  forward  we  notice  a  steady 
expectation  of  the  coming  of  Jehovah  to  judgment, 
and  the  deficiencies  of  Zechariah  as  an  ethical 
preacher  are  made  good  by  a  subsequent  prophet, 
who  has  not  cared  for  posthumous  fame,  and  has 
written  anonymously.  Subsequent  generations, 
through  an  odd  mistake,  gave  him  the  name  of 
Malachi. 

“  Behold,  the  day  comes,”  he  exclaims,  “  burning  as 
an  oven  ;  all  the  arrogant  and  all  wicked-doers  will 
become  like  stubble  ;  the  day  that  comes  will  burn  them 
root  and  branch.  But  upon  you,  the  fearers  of  my 
name,  the  sun  of  righteousness  will  dawn  with  healing 
in  his  wings  ;  ye  will  go  forth  and  grow  fat  like  calves 
of  the  stall.  Ye  will  tread  down  the  wicked  ;  they  will 
become  ashes  under  the  soles  of  your  feet,  in  the  day 
when  I  carry  out  my  promise,  saith  Jehovah  Sabaoth.” 

Then,  apparently  as  the  condition  of  the  preced¬ 
ing  promise,  he  adds,  “  Remember  ye  the  law  of  my 
servant  Moses,  to  whom  I  gave  in  charge  in  Horeb 
statutes  and  judgments  for  all  Israel  ”  (Mai.  iv.,  3). 

Evidently  the  tide  had  begun  to  turn  ;  the  re- 


20  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


building  of  the  temple  marks  a  historical  epoch. 
However  faulty  the  popular  religion  might  be, — 
and  Malachi  does  not  stint  himself  in  his  denuncia¬ 
tion  of  it — there  was  more  spiritual  life  in  the  com¬ 
munity  than  in  Haggai’s  time.  There  were  not  a 
few  at  any  rate  who  were  strict  observers  of  the 
Deuteronomic  Law,  and  who  by  their  conscien¬ 
tiousness  atoned  for  the  laxity  of  the  multitude.  All 
that  these  men  needed  to  make  their  witness  effica¬ 
cious  was  qualified  leaders,  in  whom  theoretical 
insight  and  practical  ability  were  united.  Such  capa¬ 
ble  men  were  indeed  to  be  found,  but  in  the  lands 
of  the  Dispersion,  not  in  Judaea.  How  is  this  to  be 
accounted  for  ?  Why  did  they  remain  in  their 
distant  homes  ?  Why  did  not  more  Israelites  return  ? 

Some,  I  make  no  doubt,  did  return.  It  is  clear 
from  Zechariah  that  Babylonian  Jews  sometimes 
came  on  visits  to  the  holy  city,  and  it  is  hardly 
credible  that  none  of  these  were  induced  to  lay 
down  their  pilgrim-staves,  and  remain  in  Jerusalem. 
Such  immigrants  would  naturally  attach  themselves 
to  the  “fearers  of  Jehovah”  whom  they  already 
found  there, — that  is,  to  those  strict  observers  of 
Deuteronomy  who  had  formed  themselves,  as  Mala¬ 
chi  tells  us  (iii.,  1 6),  into  an  association.  But  the 
general  aspect  of  the  population  was  not  appreci¬ 
ably  affected  by  these  few  immigrants.  The  J udaeans, 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


21 


as  a  late  prophetic  writer  says,  were  like  a  poor¬ 
looking  cluster  of  grapes,  which  the  vintager  only 
spares  for  the  sake  of  the  few  good  grapes  which 
hang  upon  it  (Isa.  lxv).  So,  again  I  ask,  Why  did 
not  more  Israelites  return? 

Three  plausible  answers  may  be  given,  (i)  Since 
the  fall  of  the  ancient  state  there  had  been  a  great 
gulf  between  the  Babylonian  and  the  Judaean  Israel¬ 
ites.  Both  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  use  the  most  dis¬ 
paraging  language  of  the  Jews  who  did  not  share 
the  fate  of  Jehoiachin,  and  the  Second  Isaiah  even 
ignores  the  Jews  in  Judaea  altogether.  (2)  Strong 
Jewish  colonies  in  other  parts  of  the  empire  were 
important  both  as  increasing  the  influence  of  the 
race,  and  as  providing  the  silver  and  gold  for  re¬ 
ligious  uses  in  which  the  scanty  Judaean  population 
was  deficient.  Nor  must  the  religious  value  of  their 
witness  for  ethical  monotheism  be  forgotten.  (3) 
The  predictions  of  the  Second  Isaiah  assumed  that 
the  powers  of  heaven  and  earth  were  united  in 
favour  of  Israel’s  restoration,  whereas  at  present 
both  the  heavenly  and  the  earthly  voices  were,  as 
it  seemed,  obstinately  silent. 

In  course  of  time,  God  put  it  into  the  heart  of 
one  of  the  Jewish  priests  in  Babylonia  to  head  a 
migration  to  Judaea.  But  there  were  men  of  a  dif¬ 
ferent  school  who,  before  this,  had  as  it  seems  made 


22 


Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


an  effort  to  stimulate  the  Babylonian  Jews.  We 
have,  not  improbably,  a  record  of  this  attempt  in 
chaps,  xlix-lv.,  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  which  appear 
to  be  an  appendix  to  the  original  Prophecy  of 
Restoration,  written  in  Babylonia  by  an  admirer  of 
the  Second  Isaiah,  and  brought  to  Jerusalem. 
Almost  throughout  this  section  the  point  of  view 
is  shifted  from  Babylon  and  the  exiles  to  Zion  and 
its  struggling  community.  Indeed,  but  for  the 
beauty  of  the  style,  and  the  delicacy  of  the  art,  by 
which  these  chapters  contrast  with  those  which  were 
undeniably  appended  at  Jerusalem  (chaps,  lx-lxii.) 
and  but  for  the  want  of  concreteness  and  I  may 
even  say  the  inappropriateness  in  the  descriptions 
of  the  Zion  community,  we  might  bring  ourselves 
to  suppose  that  they  were  written  in  Judaea.  The 
phenomena  may  be  best  reconciled  by  the  theory 
that  the  chapters  were  written  in  Babylonia,  partly 
to  induce  Babylonian  Jews  to  go  to  Judaea,  partly 
to  encourage  hard-pressed  workers  in  Jerusalem. 

Allow  me  to  quote  a  very  familiar  passage,  which 
however  is  too  generally  misunderstood  through  not 
being  furnished  with  the  right  historical  back¬ 
ground.* 

*  See  Isaiah  in  the  Polychrome  Bible ,  and  cf .  Introduction  to  Isaiah 
by  the  present  writer  ;  see  also  article  “  Isaiah  ”  in  the  Encyclopcedia 
Biblica. 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


23 


“  Ho  !  all  ye  that  are  athirst,  go  to  the  waters, 

And  ye  that  have  no  strength,  eat  ! 

Go,  buy  grain  without  money, 

Wine  and  milk  without  price. 

Why  do  ye  pay  money  for  that  which  is  no  bread, 
And  take  trouble  for  that  which  satisfies  not  ?”  (Isa. 
lv.,  I,  2). 

Here  the  “waters,”  the  “grain,”  the  “wine,”  and 
the  “milk,”  are  all  those  blessings,  both  moral  and 
material,  the  reception  of  which  can  effect  the  re¬ 
generation  of  a  people.  It  is  presupposed  that  an 
organised  community  exists  in  the  land  of  Israel, 
and  it  is  the  pious  preacher’s  wish  to  stir  up  devout 
men  in  Babylonia  to  claim  their  share  in  the  life 
and  work  of  this  community.  Unless,  either  in  a 
figure  or,  best  of  all,  in  reality,  they  go  to  Jerusalem, 
they  will  continue,  he  thinks,  to  be  like  the  “  dry 
bones  ”  of  another  prophet’s  vision.  They  may 
have  money  to  spend,  but  there  is  no  bread  for  them 
to  buy.  They  may  “  rise  up  early  and  late  take  rest,”  * 
but  they  will  have  no  satisfaction  from  their  gains. 
They  are,  by  their  own  choice,  “  strangers  to  the 
commonwealth  of  Israel.”  Better  far  were  it  to 
join  the  ranks  of  Jehovah’s  confessors, — for  such, 
the  writer  mistakenly  assumes,  the  Jews  of  Judaea 
have  become  ;  better  far  were  it  to  suffer  the  insult¬ 
ing  of  men,  which  will  last  but  for  a  moment,  and 

*  Ps.  cxxvii.,  3.  (Prayerbook  version.) 


24  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


to  wait  at  Zion  for  that  awakening  of  the  arm  of 
Jehovah  which  will  renew  the  wonders  of  the  days 
of  old.  Sore  need  has  desolate  Zion  of  her  children  ; 
when  will  the  exiles  in  a  body  depart  in  a  holy  pro¬ 
cession  from  Babylon — not  in  flight,  as  the  Second 
Isaiah  had  formerly  said,  but  in  grave,  majestic 
solemnity,  with  Jehovah  for  their  protector  both  in 
the  van  and  in  the  rear?  * 

Of  the  two  very  different  gifts  for  which  Jerusalem 
had  lately  been  indebted  to  Babylon — the  treasure 
made  into  a  crown  for  Zerubbabel  and  the  first 
appendix  to  the  Prophecy  of  Restoration,  the  former 
was  much  more  easy  to  make  use  of  than  the  latter. 
The  golden  crown  was  no  doubt  melted  down,  and 
converted  into  some  needed  ornament  for  the  temple. 
But  the  new  prophetic  rhapsody  was  too  idealistic 
to  be  greatly  appreciated  at  Jerusalem.  Ezekiel 
was  at  that  time  much  more  likely  to  influence 
“  church-workers.”  His  conception  of  “  holiness  ” 
and  his  horror  of  profane  contact  with  holy  things 
are  to  be  found  both  in  Zechariah  and  in  Malachi 
(Zech.  iii.,  7,  Mai.  ii.,  11).  It  is  also  from  Ezekiel 
that  the  distinction  between  priests  and  Levites 
traceable  in  the  ancient  list  of  the  “  children  of  the 
province  ”  (Ezr.  ii.,  Neh.  vii.)  is  derived,  and  it  is 
Ezekiel  who  has  set  the  tone  and  suggested  some  of 
*  Isa.  Ii. ,  7-10  ;  liv.,  1  ;  lii. .  12. 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


25 


the  chief  details  of  perhaps  the  earliest  of  the  pro¬ 
phecies  in  the  third  part  of  Isaiah  (Isa.  lvi.  9-lvii. 

The  prophecy  to  which  I  have  referred  is  one 
which  loses  greatly  through  being  read  in  a  poor 
translation  of  an  uncorrected  text.  Its  true  meaning 
and  that  of  the  related  prophecies  in  Isa.  lxv.,  lxvi., 
1-22  deserves  to  be  better  known.  The  persons  so 
angrily  attacked  by  the  prophetic  writers  are  the 
half-Jews  of  central  Palestine  commonly  called  Sa¬ 
maritans,  and  those  Jews  in  Judaea  and  Jerusalem 
who  had  more  or  less  religious  sympathy  with  them. 
How  it  is  possible  that  the  bitter  feelings  expressed 
in  these  passages  can  ever  have  been  imputed  to  the 
suave  and  affectionate  Second  Isaiah,  it  is  difficult  to 
conceive.  Even  one  of  the  earlier  post-exilic  pro¬ 
phets,  such  as  Haggai  or  Zechariah,  could  not  have 
written  such  angry  invectives.  For  the  truth  is, 
that  there  is  no  evidence  that  in  the  earlier  period 
there  was  any  strong  religious  feud  between  the  Jews 
and  the  Samaritans.  The  Samaritans  were  doubtless 
farther  off  from  legal  orthodoxy  than  the  Jews,  but 
the  standard  of  orthodoxy  even  among  the  Jews 
cannot  have  been  very  high,  especially  in  the  coun¬ 
try  districts,  where,  in  the  absence  of  a  strong  central 
authority,  gross  superstitions  still  lingered.  Nor  is 
there  any  reason  to  think  that  the  Samaritans  ever 


26  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


gave  up  their  interest  in  the  great  sanctuary  of  Judah 
until  they  were  forced.  It  is  said  that  not  long  after 
the  burning  of  the  temple  a  party  of  eighty  pilgrims 
came  from  Shechem,  Shiloh,  and  Samaria  to  Mizpah 
bringing  offerings  for  the  old  sanctuary  there,*  and 
if  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  had  not  been  in  ruins, 
they  would  no  doubt  have  preferred  it  to  the  sanc¬ 
tuary  of  Mizpah.  f  We  need  not  therefore  doubt 
that  when  in  520  the  Jews  determined  to  rebuild 
their  temple,  the  Samaritans  felt  a  sympathetic  in¬ 
terest  in  the  undertaking.  They  might  not  care  to 
relieve  the  Jews  of  the  duty  of  rebuilding  their 
sanctuary  (the  story  of  their  interfering  with  their 
kinsmen  under  pretence  of  a  wish  to  co-operate,  is  a 
pure  imagination,)  but  when  by  Zechariah’s  conta¬ 
gious  enthusiasm  the  work  had  been  done,  they  would 
naturally  be  eager  to  maintain  their  connection  with 
such  a  holy  place.  By  the  aid  of  the  priestly  aris¬ 
tocracy  they  succeeded  in  doing  this  till  Nehemiah, 
armed  with  a  Persian  firman,  interposed. 

The  course  of  action  which  this  great  official 
adopted  provoked  the  Samaritans  to  the  utmost,  and 
radically  changed  their  relations  to  the  Jews.  We 
may  be  inclined  to  blame  Nehemiah  until  we  remem- 

*  Jer.  xli.,  5.  The  sad  story  of  the  pilgrims  is  hardly  less  horrible 
than  that  of  the  well  at  Cawnpore  in  India. 

f  Many  writers  think  that  the  “  house  of  Jehovah”  referred  to  in 
Jeremiah  really  means  the  ruin-laden  site  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem. 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


2  7 


ber  that  the  religious  isolation  of  the  Jews  on  a 
strictly  legal  basis  was  an  object  of  vital  importance 
to  the  higher  religion,  and  that  an  attempt  had  al¬ 
ready  been  made  by  orthodox  Jews  to  convert  the 
Samaritans.  On  this  attempt  a  few  words  of  expla¬ 
nation  seem  necessary.  It  is  recorded,  as  I  believe, 
in  the  following  passage  from  the  work  of  a  prophetic 
writer  of  the  time  preceding  Nehemiah,  who  belonged 
to  the  orthodox  school  *  : 

“  I  offered  admission  to  those  who  asked  not  after 
me  ;  I  offered  my  oracles  to  those  who  sought  me  not ; 
I  said,  Here  am  I,  here  am  I,  to  a  class  of  men  which 
called  not  upon  my  name.  I  have  spread  out  my  hands 
all  the  day  to  an  unruly  and  disobedient  people,  who 
follow  the  way  which  is  not  good,  after  their  own  de¬ 
vices  ”  (Isa.  lxv.,  i,  2). 

This  I  take  to  mean  that  some  of  the  orthodox  lead¬ 
ers  of  the  Jews  wished  to  make  the  continued  ad¬ 
mission  of  the  Samaritans  to  religious  privileges  (and 
to  all  that  this  involved)  conditional  on  their  renun¬ 
ciation  of  their  distinguishing  peculiarities  and  their 
adoption  of  the  Jewish  law  and  traditions.  They 
attempted,  in  a  word,  to  make  converts  of  the  Sa¬ 
maritans,  but  the  attempt  was  a  failure.  Probably 
enough,  there  were  faults  on  both  sides.  The  Jews 
were  deficient  in  suavity,  like  Augustine  of  Canter¬ 
bury  when  he  tried  in  vain  to  unite  the  English  and 
*  It  was  Prof.  Duhm  of  Basel  who  first  pointed  this  out. 


28  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


the  Welsh  in  one  Christian  Church ;  the  Samaritans, 
on  their  side,  had  as  yet  no  religious  receptivity. 
And  now  a  most  strange  phenomenon  meets  us, 
though  not  more  so  than  many  which  we  shall  en¬ 
counter  in  the  later  literature,  not  more  so,  for 
instance,  than  the  fact  that  “  Malachi,”  violently 
opposed  as  he  is  to  an  intermingling  of  races  in  the 
Jewish  territory,  grasps  the  fundamental  reforming 
principle  of  the  divine  fatherhood,  and  asserts  the 
universality  of  a  true  worship  of  J ehovah.*  The  phe¬ 
nomenon  to  which  I  refer  is  this, — that  the  same 
writer  (probably)  who  has  just  spoken  so  harshly  of 
the  Samaritans  because  they  have  refused  to  adopt 
the  Jewish  law,  now  censures  them  for  wishing  to 
build  a  central  sanctuary  of  their  own,  and  bases  this 
censure  on  a  principle  which,  regarded  logically,  is 
just  as  adverse  to  the  claims  of  the  temple  at  Jeru¬ 
salem.  He  says : 

Thus  saith  Jehovah  ;  Heaven  is  my  throne  and  earth 
my  footstool.  What  house  would  ye  build  for  me,  and 
what  place  as  my  habitation  ?  For  all  this  has  my  hand 
made,  and  mine  is  all  this,  saith  Jehovah.  (Isa.  lxvi.,  1,2.) 

The  explanation  is  that  post-exilic  Jewish  religion  is 
to  a  large  extent  a  fusion  of  inconsistent  elements, 
of  prophetic  and  priestly  origin,  respectively.  Upon 
one  side  of  his  nature  this  writer,  like  many  another, 

*  Mai.  ii.,  10,  11;  i.,  11. 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


29 


sympathises  with  prophets  like  Jeremiah;  upon  an¬ 
other,  with  the  priests.  Experience  proved  that  it 
was  hopeless  to  refound  the  Judaean  community  on 
pure  prophetic  spiritualism  ;  traditional  forms  had  to 
be  retained,  and  so  far  as  possible  rendered  harmless 
or  symbolic  of  spiritual  truth.  And  so  this  writer, 
though  he  holds  that  not  even  the  temple  at  Jeru¬ 
salem  is  worthy  of  the  Divine  Creator,  yet  expostu¬ 
lates  with  those  who  plan  the  erection  of  another 
temple  elsewhere.  It  is  only  in  the  temple  so  lately 
rebuilt  that  the  right  worshippers  are  to  be  found, 
viz.,  the  humble  and  obedient  Jewish  believers.  Let 
the  Samaritans  renounce  their  self-chosen  and  often 
abominable  customs,  and  submit  to  the  Law,  and 
then  it  will  be  permitted  to  them  to  worship  God  in 
a  temple  made  with  hands. 

Into  the  details  of  the  customs  ascribed  to  the  op¬ 
ponents  of  orthodoxy  (viz.,  the  Samaritans  and  the 
least  advanced  of  the  old  Jewish  remnant)  it  is  not 
necessary  to  enter.  (See  Isa.  lxv.,  3-5,  1 1  ;  lxvi.,  3, 4.) 
But  it  is  interesting  to  see  how  orthodox  Jews  at 
this  period  expressed  their  aversion  to  those  oppo¬ 
nents  in  sacred  song.  I  quote  from  a  fragment  of  an 
old  post-exilic  psalm  which  seems  to  have  received 
a  later  addition  ;  it  is  the  kernel  of  our  present  16th 
psalm.* 

*  I  translate  from  a  corrected  text. 


30  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Keep  watch  over  me,  O  God,  for  in  thee  I  take  refuge  ! 
I  profess  to  Jehovah,  Thou  art  my  Lord  ; 

To  draw  near  to  thee  is  my  happiness, 

And  in  thy  holy  seasons  is  all  my  delight. 

Those  who  choose  another  (than  Jehovah)  give  them¬ 
selves  much  pain  ; 

Their  libations  of  blood  I  will  not  pour  out  ; 

Their  (deity’s)  names  I  will  not  take  on  my  lips, 

Jehovah  (alone)  is  my  cup’s  portion  and  my  lot. 

(Ps.  xvi.,  1-5.) 

To  understand  the  allusions  we  must  refer  to  differ¬ 
ent  passages  in  the  third  part  of  Isaiah  written  in 
the  age  of  Nehemiah,  most  probably  shortly  before 
his  arrival.  The  speaker  is  the  personified  associa¬ 
tion  of  pious  Israelites,  which,  however  small,  feels 
itself  the  bearer  of  Jehovah’s  banner,  and  contrasts 
its  own  inward  happiness  and  assured  glorification 
with  the  present  spiritual  loss  and  future  punish¬ 
ment  of  those  who  indulge  in  the  abominable  rites 
of  the  Samaritans. 

It  may  perhaps  be  objected  to  the  foregoing  sketch 
of  the  early  dealings  of  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans 
that  it  is  a  reconstruction  of  history.  It  is  so,  and 
it  ought  to  be  so.  That  the  right  moment  for  such 
an  attempt  has  arrived,  no  one  who  knows  the  course 
of  recent  criticism  can  deny,  and  historical  students 
will,  I  believe,  recognise  that  the  results  here  given 
have  considerable  probability.  It  has  at  any  rate 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


3i 


been  shown  that  the  feud  between  the  Jews  and  the 
Samaritans  was  probably  of  later  and  more  gradual 
origin  than  has  been  supposed,  and  that  the  plan  of 
building  a  Samaritan  temple  arose  long  before  the 
time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  when,  according  to 
Josephus,  the  Gerizim-sanctuary  was  erected.  And 
hence  the  question  arises,  May  not  Josephus  have 
been  mistaken  as  to  the  date  of  this  event?* 

It  is  admitted  that  he  places  the  expulsion  of 
Sanballat’s  son-in-law  Manasseh  (to  which  I  shall 
refer  again)  a  hundred  years  too  late  ;  why,  then, 
should  we  assume  that  he  is  more  correct  in  a  closely 
related  statement  ?  It  is  true,  he  repeats  the  state¬ 
ment  as  to  the  date  of  the  temple  elsewhere ;  but 
cannot  a  writer  be  persistently  inaccurate?  The 
chronology  of  the  Persian  period  was,  in  Josephus’s 
time,  so  obscure  that  he  may  well  be  pardoned  for 
such  an  error. 

A  word  may  be  added  in  conclusion  with  regard 
to  Manasseh.  The  complete  story  of  this  Jewish 
priest  will  be  given  later.  He  incurred  the  special 
displeasure  of  Nehemiah  because  under  aggravating 
circumstances  he  had  contracted  a  mixed  marriage. 
But  we  must  not  take  too  low  a  view  of  Manasseh’s 

*  Jos.  Ant.,  xi.,  8,  2-4.  The  inaccuracy  is  of  course  diminished 
if,  as  some  think,  it  was  the  second  and  not  the  first  Artaxerxes  un¬ 
der  whose  patronage  Nehemiah  and  Ezra  came  to  Jerusalem. 


32  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


character.  Belonging  as  he  did  to  the  old  Jerusa¬ 
lem  priesthood,  he  had  his  own  views  of  what  be¬ 
came  a  priest,  and  his  own  way  of  interpreting  the 
Law,  and  though  Malachi  would  have  said  that  he 
had  “  caused  many  to  stumble  ”  by  his  interpretation 
(Mai.  ii.,  8),  yet  we  shall  see  presently  that  the  rigor¬ 
ous  views  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  were  not  the  only 
ones  represented  among  faithful  Jews.  Certain  it  is 
that  he  was  very  different  religiously  from  his  friends 
the  Samaritans,  and  that  Nehemiah  really  benefited 
the  rival  community  by  forcing  Manasseh  to  take 
refuge  among  them.  Manasseh,  as  it  would  seem, 
became  the  religious  reformer  of  the  Samaritans. 
Quite  possibly  he  took  with  him,  on  his  expulsion, 
not  merely  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  but  the  whole 
Pentateuch  in  the  form  in  which  it  then  existed. 
We  may  assume  that  he  also  obtained  the  erection 
of  the  temple  of  Gerizim,  and  so  achieved  the  cen¬ 
tralisation  of  the  Samaritan  worship. 

Thus  the  fugitive  Jewish  priest  Manasseh  became 
the  greatest  benefactor  of  the  Samaritan  community. 
To  him  alone  it  is  indebted  for  its  long  survival. 
The  temple  built  (as  I  believe)  through  him  was  de¬ 
stroyed  by  the  Hasmonaean  sovereign  of  Judaea,  John 
Hyrcanus,  in  B.c.  130.  It  was  succeeded  by  a  temple 
at  Shechem  which  no  doubt  perished  when  the  town 
of  Shechem  was  laid  in  ruins  by  Vespasian.  But 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


33 


the  Samaritans  continued  to  cling  to  the  neighbour¬ 
hood  of  their  sacred  mountain,  and  some  of  us  may 
even  have  seen  the  old  paschal  rites  celebrated  on  a 
sacred  spot  on  Gerizim,  which  was  perhaps  within 
the  precincts  of  Manasseh’s  temple.  The  Samaritans 
may,  from  a  modern  theological  point  of  view,  be 
simply  a  Jewish  sect,  but,  putting  ourselves  in  their 
intellectual  position,  we  cannot  be  surprised  if  they 
consider  their  local  continuance  as  the  strongest  of 
arguments  in  favour  of  their  religious  orthodoxy. 
They  may  be  an  insignificant  minority  of  the  wor¬ 
shippers  of  the  God  of  Jacob,  but  a  sign  from  the 
supernatural  world  would  in  a  moment  change  the 
relative  position  of  Jews  and  Samaritans,  as  indeed 
unreformed  Judaism  itself  teaches  that  a  supernat¬ 
ural  interposition  will  one  day  invert  the  relations 
of  Jews  and  Gentiles.  Jehovah  Nissi  (Jehovah  is 
my  Banner)  might  therefore  be  taken  as  a  motto  not 
less  by  the  depressed  community  at  Nablus  than  by 
that  almost  oecumenical  body — the  Jewish  Church. 

For  after  all,  Jews  and  Samaritans  alike  have  a 
grasp  of  the  truth  :  we  only  part  from  them,  or  from 
any  of  our  fellow-Christians,  in  so  far  as  they  mix  up 
the  truth  with  arrogant  and  unspiritual  assumptions. 
They  base  their  right  to  existence  on  their  faith,  and 
faith  is  indeed  the  only  rock  which  will  uphold  either 
communities  or  individuals  in  the  sea  of  change.  I 


34  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Lxile 


venture  to  claim  a  right  to  say  this  even  in  a  historical 
discussion,  because  to  inquire  about  religions  without 
experimental  knowledge  of  the  essence  of  religion 
seems  to  me  an  unprofitable  pastime.  Faith  is  the 
essence  of  religion  on  its  heavenward  side,  and  the 
Chronicler  rightly  discerned  the  connecting  link  be¬ 
tween  the  religion  of  the  pre-exilic  prophets  and 
that  of  the  post-exilic  Church  when  he  imagined 
King  Jehoshaphat  thus  addressing  the  assembled 
congregation  in  the  wilderness  of  Tekoa: 

“  Hear  me,  O  Judah,  and  ye  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem. 
Believe  Jehovah  your  God,  so  shall  ye  be  established  ; 
believe  his  prophets,  so  shall  ye  prosper.”  (2  Chr.  xx.,  20.) 

For  the  pre-exilic  prophet  Isaiah  had  long  before  in¬ 
tuitively  made  the  discovery  which  was  a  religious 
commonplace  to  the  Chronicler,  when  he  said  to 
Ahaz  and  his  courtiers,  “  If  ye  will  not  believe,  then 
ye  shall  not  be  established.”  *  (Isa.  vii.,  9.)  And  it  is 
on  this  firm  ground,  and  not  on  any  subtle  theory  of 
the  nature  of  Inspiration  or  the  interpretation  of  for¬ 
mularies,  that  I  base  my  own  personal  right  to  go  as 
deep  as  I  can  in  Biblical  research,  and  my  advocacy 
of  a  braver  and  a  bolder  policy  than  has  yet  been 
common  in  the  instruction  of  students.  Such  a  pol¬ 
icy  can  do  no  one’s  religion  any  real  harm,  and,  in  my 

*  Or,  “If  ye  will  not  hold  fast  (*.  e.,  to  the  living  God),  then  ye 
shall  not  be  held  fast.” 


Religious  Life  in  Judaea 


35 


opinion,  accords  best  with  the  spirit  of  One  whom  I 
am  not  worthy  to  name,  but  who  is  the  Master  and 
Leader  of  all  who  are  seeking  to  purify  the  moral  and 
religious  conceptions  of  the  Church  or  the  community. 

It  is  the  attitude  of  the  Master  towards  the  Jew¬ 
ish  Law  which  justifies  Christian  critics  (for  whom  I 
now  write)  in  their  free  but  reverent  attitude  tow¬ 
ards  the  historical  documents  of  the  Church,  among 
which  those  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament 
stand  supreme.  How  much  the  religion  of  mankind 
owes  to  the  reverent  but  incomparably  bold  attitude 
of  the  Master  towards  the  Jewish  Law,  can  already 
be  seen  in  part,  and  at  a  later  stage  of  the  world’s 
history  will  be  discerned  more  fully.  And  the  reader 
will  rightly  suppose  that  my  treatment  of  the  Sa¬ 
maritans  in  this  historical  sketch  is  partly  suggested 
by  the  mild  reasonableness  of  the  Master’s  estimate 
of  that  people.  The  disparaging  sentiment  of  the 
ancient  Jews  respecting  them  is  well  known.  But 
the  Master  on  two  occasions  *  contrasted  the  moral 
and  religious  practice  of  the  Jews  and  of  the  Samari¬ 
tans  to  the  advantage  of  the  latter.  If  this  was  just 
and  right  in  the  Roman  period  of  Jewish  history,  it 
cannot  be  plausible  to  assume  that  the  Samaritans 
of  Nehemiah’s  age  were  entirely  destitute  of  the  es¬ 
sential  qualities  of  human  goodness. 

*  Luke  x.,  33  ;  xvii.,  16. 


LECTURE  II. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  ;  or,  The  Re¬ 
constitution  of  the  Jewish  and  the 
Samaritan  Communities. 


E  have,  I  hope,  already  gained  some  valu¬ 


able  results.  That  a  fugitive  Jewish  priest 


became  the  reformer  of  the  Samaritan  religion,  is 
not  the  least  interesting  of  them,  and  accordingly  I 
shall  endeavour  to  place  this  fact  in  its  right  setting. 
First  of  all,  however,  permit  me  to  direct  your  atten¬ 
tion  to  some  patriotic  enterprises  of  Babylonian  and 
Judaean  Israelites  which  preceded  the  expulsion  of 
Manasseh.  It  is  certain  that  the  Jews  who  remained 
in  Babylonia  had  by  no  means  forgotten  Jerusalem. 
Though  they  did  not  migrate  to  Judaea,  they  must 
have  had  such  a  migration  in  view,  for  the  elite  of 
their  body  devoted  themselves  to  the  difficult  task 
of  bringing  the  traditional  Jewish  laws  up  to  date. 
To  this  truly  patriotic  enterprise  I  shall  have  to  re¬ 
fer  later  on.  A  not  less  important  work,  undertaken 
in  Babylonia,  was  that  of  supplementing  and  adapt¬ 
ing  the  fragments  of  early  prophecies  to  the  needs 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


37 


of  the  present.  As  I  have  already  mentioned,  the 
author  of  the  first  appendix  to  the  Second  Isaiah’s 
prophecy  (chaps,  xlix.-lv.)  endeavoured  to  stimulate 
Babylonian  Jews  to  a  personal  co-operation  with  the 
Judaean  reformers.  This  eloquent  writer  was  evi¬ 
dently  in  close  touch  with  those  faithful  workers. 
He  knew  their  difficulties,  and  had  noted  with  re¬ 
gret  their  liability  to  fits  of  discouragement.  Like 
them,  he  longed  to  see  a  general  return  of  the  Jew¬ 
ish  exiles,  but  he  felt  that,  to  bring  this  about,  Jeho¬ 
vah  himself  must  beckon  with  his  mighty  hand  to 
the  nations.*  To  this  great  event  he  pointed  his 
readers  with  confidence. 

But  a  far  more  practical  idea  suggested  itself  to  a 
Judaean  Israelite  named  Hanani.  Possibly  he  was 
an  official  of  some  kind  ;  at  any  rate,  he  afterwards 
filled  an  office  of  much  consideration  at  Jerusalem 
(Neh.  vii.,  2).  It  was  his  good  fortune  to  be  related 
to  Nehemiah,  one  of  the  butlers  of  King  Artaxerxes,f 
and  he  induced  a  party  of  Judaeans  to  accompany 
him  on  a  visit  to  his  influential  kinsman.  On  his 
arrival  at  Susa  (the  winter  residence  of  the  Persian 
kings),  he  told  Nehemiah,  in  reply  to  a  question, 
how  miserable  a  state  Jerusalem  was  in,  and  he  con¬ 
nected  this  misery  with  an  outrage  which  might 

*  Isa.  xlix.,  22. 

f  Artaxerxes  Longimanus  (466-448  b.c.),  as  most  critics  suppose. 


38  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


almost  appear  to  be  a  recent  one,  if  there  were  any¬ 
thing  in  the  rest  of  the  document  to  justify  the  sup¬ 
position.  These  are  the  words  of  the  question  and 
answer,  as  Nehemiah  in  his  brief  way  reports  them : 

“  I  asked  them  respecting  the  Jews  that  had  escaped, 
who  remained  over  from  the  captivity,  and  respecting 
Jerusalem.  And  they  said  to  me,  those  who  remain  over 
from  the  captivity  there  in  the  province  are  greatly 
afflicted  and  insulted  ;  the  wall  of  Jerusalem  is  broken 
down,  and  its  gates  are  burned.”  (Neh.  i.,  2,  3.) 

Nehemiah  was  conscious  that  a  crisis  had  arrived, 
and  that  it  devolved  upon  him  to  make  a  supreme 
effort  for  the  good  of  Jerusalem.  He  was  no  mere 
theorist,  and  could  not  think  it  sufficient  to  write 
addresses  full  of  a  soaring  but  impracticable  idealism. 
What  he  did,  or  at  least  wishes  us  to  know  that  he 
did,  is  recorded  in  his  autobiography.  This  docu¬ 
ment  is  one  of  our  best  authorities;  its  preservation 
is  a  piece  of  singular  good  fortune.  Still  there  are 
some  questions  of  the  historical  student  which  it 
fails  to  answer.  It  does  not,  for  instance,  explain 
how  Artaxerxes  came  to  be  more  friendly  to  the 
Jews  than  either  Cyrus  or  Darius.  Evidently  there 
was  some  political  motive  for  this  king’s  generosity, 
and  it  is  the  business  of  the  historian  to  divine  it. 
I  venture  therefore  to  make  a  conjecture.  In  448 
B.C.  there  was  a  very  serious  revolt  of  the  Syrian 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


39 


satrap  Megabyzos.  It  is  more  than  probable  that 
the  Jews  avoided  being  drawn  into  this,  and  we  may 
presume  that  Artaxerxes  wished  to  reward  them  for 
their  loyalty.  I  believe  that  Nehemiah  understood 
this  state  of  things,  and  even  suspected  that  he  owed 
his  position  at  court,  which  in  former  times  had  been 
filled  by  high-born  Persian  nobles,  to  the  philo-Juda- 
ism  of  Artaxerxes.  Not  improbably  too  some  of  the 
chief  men  of  Jerusalem  were  as  well  informed  as 
Nehemiah,  so  that  the  arrival  of  Hanani  and  his 
companions  was  not  quite  so  accidental  as  Josephus 
in  his  romantic  narrative  represents  it*  (Jos.  Ant. 
xi.,  5,  6). 

One  fact  at  any  rate  is  certain, — that  Nehemiah 
obtained  leave  of  absence  to  go  to  Jerusalem  in  the 
capacity  of  governor,  with  the  special  object  of  re¬ 
pairing  the  walls.  With  firman  and  military  escort 
he  hurried  to  the  holy  city.  Arrived  there,  he  at 
once  showed  his  characteristic  self-reliance.  He 
might  have  called  the  notables  together,  and  have 
asked  their  opinion  as  to  the  expediency  of  rebuild¬ 
ing  the  walls.  But  there  were  great  divisions  among 
the  citizens,  some  of  whom,  members  of  the  priestly 
class  as  well  as  laymen,  were  closely  connected  with 


*  The  Judasans  may  have  long  desired  to  repair  the  walls  of  their 
capital,  but  have  not  felt  sure  enough  of  their  favour  at  court  to  ask 
leave  to  do  so. 


40  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


the  Samaritan  leaders.  Nehemiah  doubtless  knew 
this,  and  was  unwilling  to  incur  the  risk  of  having  his 
own  opinion  rejected.  So  the  third  night  after  his 
arrival  he  and  a  few  trusty  followers  partly  rode, 
partly  walked,  round  the  walls  of  the  city.*  At  such 
a  time  as  this  (though,  most  probably,  a  hundred 
years  or  more  later),  a  psalmist  wrote  these  words, 
which  well  express  the  feelings  of  Nehemiah : 

“  For  thy  servants  take  pleasure  in  her  stones, 

And  are  distressed  to  see  her  in  the  dust.” 

(Ps.  cii.,  14.) 

Stirred  in  his  inmost  depths,  the  governor  now 
called  the  notables  together.  He  told  them  how 
plainly  the  hand  (z.  e .,  the  providence)  of  God  had 
been  over  him.  Opposition  was  impossible.  Eli- 
ashib,  the  friend  of  a  leading  Samaritan,  was  foremost 
among  Nehemiah’s  supporters.  It  was  like  the  re¬ 
building  of  the  wall  of  Athens  after  the  Persian  in¬ 
vasion.  In  fifty-two  days  the  wall  was  completely 
repaired. f 

The  truth  of  the  story  cannot  be  doubted.  We 
have  indeed  a  partial  parallel  for  it  in  the  story  of  a 
not  less  egotistic  and  not  less  meritorious  officer  in 
the  Persian  service,  the  Egyptian  priest  Uza-hor. 
Under  two  of  the  last  native  kings  of  Egypt  this 

*  Neh.  ii. ,  11-15. 

f  Neh.  ii.,  17,  18  ;  iii.,  1  ;  vi.,  15. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


41 


man  had  been  admiral  of  the  fleet,  but  upon  the  con¬ 
quest  of  Egypt  by  Cambyses  he  received  the  post  of 
a  chief  physician.  He  was  more  than  this,  however. 
His  father  had  been  chief  priest  of  the  august 
mother  of  the  sun-god,  the  goddess  Nit,  whose  chief 
temple  was  at  Sa'is.  Uza-hor  took  advantage  of  his 
position  at  the  Persian  court  to  instil  into  the  king 
a  high  notion  of  the  dignity  of  his  goddess,  and  of 
the  duty  of  purifying  her  temple,  and  restoring  her 
cultus  in  its  beauty.  Cambyses  recognised  the  duty, 
and  gave  orders  to  restore  the  worship  of  Nit.  He 
himself  even  testified  his  reverence  for  the  great 
goddess,  like  all  pious  kings  of  Egypt  before  him. 
“  He  did  this,”  says  Uza-hor,  “because  I  had  made 
known  to  him  the  high  importance  of  the  holy  god¬ 
dess.”  So  skilfully  did  Uza-hor  reconcile  his  duty 
as  a  courtier  with  his  obligations  to  his  religion.  And 
that  he  was  no  mere  ritualist,  is  shown  by  his  atten¬ 
tion  to  those  works  of  mercy  which  were  so  much  re¬ 
garded  in  ancient  Egypt.  “  I  protected  the  people,” 
he  says,  “  in  the  very  sore  calamity  which  had  hap¬ 
pened  throughout  the  land.  I  sheltered  the  weak 
from  the  strong.  I  gave  to  the  destitute  a  good 
burial,  I  nourished  all  their  children,  and  built  up 
again  all  their  houses.”  Then  came  the  accession  of 
Darius,  who  extended  the  same  favour  to  Uza-hor, 
and  sent  him  to  Egypt  to  reappoint  the  holy  scribes 


42  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


of  the  temples  in  full  numbers,  and  to  restore  every¬ 
thing  that  had  fallen  into  decay.  “  I  did  as  I  was 
commanded,”  says  Uza-hor.  “  I  took  children,  I 
confided  them  to  expert  masters  in  all  branches  of 
knowledge.  Those  who  distinguished  themselves  I 
provided  with  all  that  they  required  as  scribes.  O 
ye  divinities  of  Sai’s !  remember  all  the  good  that 
Uza-hor  the  chief  physician  has  done  !  O  Osiris,  do 
unto  him  all  that  is  good,  even  as  he  has  done  it  who 
is  the  guardian  of  thy  shrine  for  evermore.”  * 

This  Egyptian  document  is  in  several  respects  of 
considerable  importance.  First,  it  exemplifies  the 
respectful  attitude  of  the  Persian  kings  towards  the 
religions  of  conquered  races.  The  Achaemenian  dy¬ 
nasty  was  not  religiously  intolerant  except  towards 
the  end  of  its  time,  nor  did  it  care  to  proselytise  in 
countries  like  Egypt,  Babylonia,  and  Palestine,  which 
had  religions  of  ancient  and  reputable  lineage.  In¬ 
deed,  the  monuments  show  that  marked  favour  was 
extended  by  Cyrus  to  the  Babylonians,  and  by  Cam- 
byses  and  Darius  to  the  Egyptians.  For  this  there 
were  special  reasons  of  high  state  policy,  and  I  have 
suggested  that  the  favour  of  Artaxerxes  to  the  Jews 
should  be  similarly  accounted  for.  But  of  course  the 
influence  of  friendly  officials  was  an  indispensable 
help.  It  was  a  blessing  for  the  Egyptians  that  Uza- 

*  Brugsch,  Gesch.  Ag.,  pp.  784  ff. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


43 


hor  filled  the  post  of  chief  physician,  and  no  less  for 
the  Jews  that  Nehemiah  filled  that  of  royal  butler. 
We  may  be  sure  that  the  latter  took  care  to  oil  the 
political  wheels  by  representing  the  Jews  as  loyal  sub¬ 
jects  and  as  akin  to  the  Persians  by  the  purity  and 
sublimity  of  their  religion. 

Next,  the  egotistic  language  of  the  Egyptian  cour¬ 
tier  of  Darius  is  remarkable,  because  it  reminds  us 
of  the  egotism  of  the  Jewish  courtier  of  Artaxerxes. 
But  there  is  this  difference  between  the  two.  Ne- 
hemiah’s  egotism  is  a  quality  which  is  new  among 
Israelites,  while  Uza-hor  does  but  carry  on  the  tra¬ 
dition  of  Egyptian  courtiers  of  many  centuries.  In 
fact,  Egypt  was  far  in  advance  of  Israel  in  moral  de¬ 
velopment.  The  individualism  which  marks  the 
Hebrew  Book  of  Proverbs,  which  is  post-exilic, 
characterised  the  Precepts  of  the  Egyptian  prince 
Ptah-hotep  long  before ;  no  wonder,  then,  that  the 
egotism  of  Nehemiah  should  have  much  earlier  par¬ 
allels  in  the  inscriptions  on  Egyptian  statues.  Nor  is 
it  a  digression  to  remind  you  that  the  Egyptians, 
since  a  remote  antiquity,  had  looked  forward  to  a 
judgment  after  death  with  rewards  and  punishments 
for  the  individual.  The  inscriptions  on  the  statues 
(which  are  in  tomb-chapels)  are  addressed  chiefly  to 
the  gods.  We  can  hardly  say  the  like  of  Nehemiah’s 
account  of  his  good  deeds.  But  he  is  evidently 


44  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


thinking  of  a  future  reward,  when  he  pauses  in  the 
midst  of  his  story  to  ejaculate  the  prayer,  “  Remem¬ 
ber  me,  O  my  God,  for  good.”  *  Is  this  merely  a 
“prayer  for  posthumous  fame?”  Dean  Stanley 
thought  so.f  But  surely  the  words  are  to  be 
explained  by  that  touching  utterance  of  a  psalmist : 

“  Remember  me,  Jehovah,  when  thou  showest  favour 
to  thy  people, 

Take  notice  of  me  when  thou  workest  deliverance, 
That  I  may  feast  mine  eyes  on  the  felicity  of  thy 
chosen, 

May  rejoice  in  the  joy  of  thy  nation, 

May  share  the  triumph  of  thine  inheritance.” 

(Ps.  cvi.,  4,  5.) 

Nehemiah  hopes  in  fact  to  have  brought  the  Mes¬ 
sianic  period  a  good  deal  nearer  by  the  trouble  he 
has  taken,  and  has  dreams  of  being  as  prominent 
then  as  he  has  been  at  this  critical  time  at  Jerusa¬ 
lem. 

Certainly  the  butler  of  Artaxerxes  was  the  one 
great  man  in  Judsea.  Though  not  quite  devoid  of 
idealism,  he  showed  a  promptitude  both  in  counsel 
and  in  action  which  reminds  us  of  Napoleon.  That 
he  was  impatient  and  masterful,  is  but  a  way  of  say¬ 
ing  that  he  was  extremely  able  and  knew  his  own 
ability.  The  times  demanded  such  a  man,  and  any 

*  Neh.  v.,  19  ;  xiii.,  14,  22,  31. 

f  Lectures  on  the  Jewish  Church ,  iii.,  120. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


45 


other  living  Jew  would  probably  have  failed.  If  I 
add  that  he  hated  the  opponents  of  orthodox  re¬ 
ligion  with  an  intensity  that  shocks  us,  and  that  he 
suspected  them  of  meanness  as  well  as  of  religious 
error, — that  will  not  surprise  any  thoughtful  student. 
It  was  difficult — if  not  impossible — in  those  early 
times  to  love  God  fervently  without  hating  a  large 
section  of  God’s  creatures.  What  Nehemiah’s  feel¬ 
ings  were  towards  the  races  outside  Palestine,  we  can 
only  conjecture,  but  we  know  that  he  detested  three 
persons,  Sanballat  the  Horonite,  Tobiah  the  Ammon¬ 
ite,  and  Geshem  or  Gashmu  the  Arabian. 

This  detestation  was  of  course  not  peculiar  to  Ne¬ 
hemiah.  Shortly  before  his  arrival  prophets  had 
written  in  the  most  bitter  terms  respecting  the  Sa¬ 
maritans.*  The  relations  between  the  two  kindred 
communities  were  becoming  more  and  more  strained. 
Sanballat  and  Tobiah,  worshippers  of  the  same  God 
as  orthodox  Jews,  had  come  to  feel  that  the  differ¬ 
ences  which  parted  them  were  greater  than  the  resem¬ 
blances  which  united  them.  And  when  Nehemiah 
arrived,  “  it  grieved  them  exceedingly  that  there  was 
come  a  man  ”  to  give — as  it  appeared — a  final  pre¬ 
ponderance  to  the  orthodox  party  at  Jerusalem,  or 
as  Nehemiah  himself  expresses  it,  “to  seek  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  the  Israelites.”  f  And  they  had  good  reason. 

*  Isa.  lvii. ,  3-13  ;  lxv.  ;  lxvi.  f  Neh.  ii.,  10. 


46  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


The  prophets  who  had  written  against  the  Samari¬ 
tans  had  done  so  anonymously.  It  was  Nehemiah 
who  made  the  first  official  declaration  of  war.  “  We 
are  the  servants  of  the  God  of  heaven  ;  but  ye  have 
no  portion,  nor  right,  nor  memorial  in  Jerusalem.”* 
Let  me  repeat.  It  was  not  originally  the  Samaritans 
who  wished  to  be  separate  from  the  Jews.  Gladly 
would  they  have  resorted  to  the  sanctuary  at  Jeru¬ 
salem,  and  after  death  have  enjoyed  that  shadowy 
immortality  which  consisted  in  having  a  monument 
in  the  holy  city.f  But  Nehemiah  and  the  exclusive 
party  knew  their  own  mind,  and  emphasised  their 
hostility  to  their  neighbours  by  repairing  the  wall  of 
Jerusalem,  not  so  much  as  a  protection  against  or¬ 
dinary  foes  as  to  keep  out  the  Samaritans. 

The  Samaritans  on  their  side  affected  to  be  aston¬ 
ished  at  Nehemiah  for  venturing  to  commit  an  act 
of  overt  rebellion  against  Persia.^  Some  of  the  Jew¬ 
ish  prophets  had  in  all  probability  given  them  some 
excuse  for  this  bold  misrepresentation.  The  state¬ 
ment  comes  to  us  from  Sanballat,  but  there  is  no 
sufficient  reason  to  suppose  that  it  was  a  pure  fiction 
of  the  Samaritan. leader.  We  know  that  Haggai  and 
Zechariah  had  put  forward  Zerubbabel  as  the  Mes- 

*  Neh.  ii.,  20. 

f  Cf.  Isa.  lvi.,  9,  “  a  memorial  and  a  name  better  than  sons  and 
daughters.”  %  Neh.  ii.,  19. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


47 


sianic  king,  and  it  is  probable  enough  that  other 
prophets  in  Nehemiah’s  time  declared  this  great 
man  (the  one  great  man  in  Judaea,  as  I  have  said)  to 
be  the  Messiah.  It  is  true,  Nehemiah  was  not  a  de¬ 
scendant  of  David.  But  it  is  not  certain  that  Jere¬ 
miah  and  Ezekiel,  when  they  speak  of  David  or  of 
a  Sprout  of  David  as  the  future  ideal  king,  mean  to 
insist  on  a  literal  descent  from  the  son  of  Jesse.  If 
a  hero  who  came  with  the  spirit  and  power  of  David 
had  been  put  before  them,  it  is  probable  that  they 
would  have  recognised  in  him  a  true  son  of  David, 
just  as  Jesus  recognised  in  the  appearance  of  John 
the  Baptist  the  fulfilment  of  the  well-known  prophecy 
of  Malachi.*  The  Samaritans,  then,  had  really  a 
specious  pretext  for  setting  the  story  about  Nehe¬ 
miah  afloat.  Jewish  prophets  had  for  a  moment  con¬ 
nected  the  governor’s  name  with  the  traditional 
Messianic  hope.  But  Nehemiah  himself  f  was  too 
wise  and  too  honest  to  permit  such  preaching,  and 
so  to  fan  the  delusive  hope  of  Judaean  independence. 
And  I  suspect  that  Sanballat  understood  this.  It  is 
hardly  conceivable  that  the  governor’s  primary  ob¬ 
ject  in  building  the  walls  can  have  remained  a  secret 
to  Sanballat. 

What  that  object  was  we  have  seen  already.  Ne- 

*  Matt,  xi.,  14  ;  Mark  ix.,  13  ;  cf.  Luke  i.,  17. 

f  Neh.  vi.,  7. 


48  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


hemiah  wished  to  defend  Jerusalem  from  the  attack 
which  the  Samaritans  would  probably  make  on  the 
city  (on  the  pretext  of  Nehemiah’s  rebellion  against 
his  liege  lord),  when  the  right  of  worshipping  in  the 
temple  and  of  intermarrying  with  the  Jews  had  been 
withdrawn  from  them.  One  point  however  must  be 
mentioned  to  the  credit  of  Sanballat.  Before  the 
doors  of  the  city  were  set  into  the  gates,  he  made  a 
final  attempt  to  effect  a  compromise  with  Nehemiah.* 
The  governor,  it  is  true,  declares  in  his  memoirs  that 
the  Samaritans  had  a  plot  against  him.  But  the  fact 
that  Sanballat,  undeterred  by  Nehemiah’s  first  refusal, 
made  four  more  attempts  to  arrange  a  conference 
speaks  in  his  favour.  The  governor’s  rudeness  was 
enough  to  provoke  any  one,  and  goes  some  way  to 
excuse  the  final  insult  of  Sanballat.  That  bold  man 
only  threw  a  doubt  publicly  on  Nehemiah’s  loyalty 
in  revenge  for  repeated  and  most  unseemly  rebuffs; 
his  earlier  efforts  for  a  compromise  were  made  in 
good  faith.  That  Nehemiah  did  not  believe  this,  is 
no  decisive  argument  on  his  side.  His  acuteness  was 
preternatural.  He  scented  treachery  everywhere, 
and  would  not  trust  his  nearest  neighbours.  A 
prophet  urges  him  to  take  refuge  in  the  sanctuary. 
At  once  he  infers  that  the  prophet  is  in  the  pay  of 
Sanballat  (Neh.  vi.,  10-14).  The  nobles  of  Jerusalem 

*  Neh.  vi.,  1-9. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


49 


keep  up  a  correspondence  with  their  old  friend  and 
the  kinsman  of  some  of  them,  Tobiah  the  Am¬ 
monite.  At  once  Nehemiah  concludes  that  their 
letters  are  full  of  malicious  slanders  about  himself.* 
Let  not  my  reader  imagine  that  I  am  siding  with 
the  Samaritans  and  their  Jewish  friends  against  Ne¬ 
hemiah.  It  is  true,  I  think  that  the  former  had  a 
right  to  feel  aggrieved  at  the  prospect  of  being  de¬ 
prived  of  their  civil  and  religious  privileges  at  Jeru¬ 
salem,  and  that  the  Jewish  conservatives  were  quite 
naturally  drawn  to  the  Samaritans  among  whom  they 
found  a  sympathetic  comprehension  of  their  inherited 
prejudices.  Some  credit,  too,  is  due  in  my  opinion 
to  the  Jewish  nobles  for  the  assistance  which  they 
rendered  to  Nehemiah  (whose  ulterior  object  they 
did  not  perhaps  see  directly)  in  repairing  the  wall. 
But  I  think  it  quite  possible  that  they  painted  Ne¬ 
hemiah  too  darkly  in  their  private  letters,  and  that 
they  feed  the  prophet  Shemaiah  to  induce  Nehemiah 
to  commit  a  questionable  action.  And  Nehemiah’s 
cause  was  a  better  one  than  theirs.  An  exclusive 
policy  was  necessary  at  this  juncture  in  order  that  at 
a  later  day  more  catholic  principles  might  become 
possible.  Besides,  the  terms  had,  as  it  appears,  been 
stated  to  the  Samaritans  on  which  their  religious 
privileges  could  be  continued  to  them,  and  these 

*  Neh.  vi.,  17-19.  For  “  my  words  ”  read  “  evil  reports  of  me.” 


50  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


terms  they  had  rejected.  They  had  even  shown  a 
loathing  for  the  best  Jewish  piety  (Isa.  lxvi.,  5),  and, 
now  that  a  capable  leader  of  orthodoxy  had  appeared, 
they  did  their  utmost  to  hinder  his  action.  Surely  this 
antagonism  to  what  Nehemiah  knew  to  be  true 
righteousness  might,  from  the  governor’s  point  of 
view,  be  plausibly  regarded  as  obstinate  wickedness, 
which  deserved  no  courtesy  or  consideration. 

To  return  to  Nehemiah’s  personal  history.  The 
work  for  which  he  had  obtained  leave  of  absence  from 
the  court  was  finished.  It  is  stated  in  our  present  text 
of  the  book  of  Nehemiah  that  he  remained  twelve 
years  at  Jerusalem  as  governor  (Neh.  v.,  14).  But 
without  independent  corroboration  of  this  we  must 
hesitate  to  accept  it  as  correct.  The  Biblical  texts 
underwent  many  changes,  especially  in  points  affect¬ 
ing  chronology,  before  they  reached  the  latest  editors. 
The  text  of  Neh.  v.,  14  can  scarcely  be  accurate. 
Nehemiah  must,  it  would  seem,  have  gone  back  to 
Artaxerxes  as  soon  as  the  work  to  which  his  firman 
referred  was  completed.  The  king  had  only  given 
him  leave  for  a  set  time,  and  the  queen,  too,  was  in¬ 
terested  in  his  return.  One  pleasant  thing  however 
I  have  to  mention  which  is  beyond  all  doubt.  Before 
his  departure,  Nehemiah  showed  a  genuine  sympathy 
with  the  down-trodden  poor.  The  story  of  their  “  bit¬ 
ter  cry  ”  follows  immediately  on  that  of  the  building 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


5i 


of  the  wall,  and  it  was  ultimately  this  great  public 
work  which  caused  the  sad  trouble  of  which  they  com¬ 
plained.  For  it  was  not  possible  that  the  poor  Jews 
who  laboured  so  continuously  at  the  wall,  should 
have  time  to  attend  to  their  fields  and  vineyards. 
The  consequence  was  that  the  Persian  tax-gatherer 
pressed  them  on  the  one  hand,  and  Famine  held 
them  in  his  stern  grip  on  the  other.  The  only  rem¬ 
edy  was  to  apply  to  the  money-lenders.  But  those 
harsh  men  would  not  be  satisfied  unless  their  clients 
mortgaged  their  small  holdings,  and  even  let  their 
young  sons  and  daughters  go  into  slavery.  “  A 
great  cry  arose  among  the  common  people  and  their 
wives  against  their  Jewish  brethren.”  “  We  are  of 
the  same  flesh  as  our  brethren,”  they  exclaimed  in 
the  anguish  of  their  heart,  “  and  our  children  have 
the  same  lineaments  as  theirs.”  The  cry  reached 
the  governor  in  his  palace,  and  passionate  wrath 
seized  him.  He  had  not  been  prepared  for  this 
moral  failure.  He  had  hoped  to  find  the  Jews  of 
Judaea  not  inferior  in  brotherly  love  to  those  of  the 
Dispersion,  who  held  it  a  sacred  duty  to  redeem 
Jewish  captives  out  of  bondage.  The  idea  of  a  rich 
Jew  allowing  a  poor  one  to  sell  his  child,  and  even 
buying  the  child  himself,  was  abhorrent  to  Nehemiah. 
It  was  not  only  inhuman  but  irreligious,  and  the 
guilty  act  exposed  the  whole  community  to  insulting 


52  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


taunts  from  the  Samaritans.  He  called  an  assembly, 
and  with  dramatic  gestures,  which  he  has  actually 
recorded,  he  made  the  usurers  swear  to  cancel  the 
mortgages,  and  remit  the  excessive  interest  which 
they  had  been  exacting. 

The  story  speaks  badly  for  the  religious  life  of  the 
community.  It  reminds  us  of  an  anonymous  prophecy 
written  about  this  time,  a  specimen  of  which  deserves 
to  be  quoted.  The  writer  dramatically  introduces 
the  richer  Jews  expostulating  with  Jehovah  on  His 
inactivity  as  the  protector  of  Israel. 

“  Why  have  we  fasted,  and  thou  seest  it  not  ?  mortified 
ourselves,  and  thou  markest  it  not  ? 

Surely  on  your  fast  day  ye  pursue  your  business,  and 
all  money  lent  on  pledge  ye  exact. 

Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  choose,  saith  Jehovah, 

To  loose  the  fetters  of  injustice,  to  untie  the  bands  of 
violence, 

To  set  at  liberty  those  who  are  crushed,  to  burst  every 
yoke  ? 

Is  it  not  to  break  thy  bread  to  the  hungry,  and  to  bring 
the  homeless  into  thy  house, 

When  thou  seest  the  naked  to  cover  him,  and  not  to 
hide  thyself  from  thine  own  flesh  ? 

Then  will  thy  light  break  forth  as  the  dawn,  thy  wounds 
will  be  quickly  healed  over, 

Thy  redress  will  go  before  thee,  and  Jehovah's  glory 
will  be  thy  rearward. 

Thy  sons  will  build  up  the  ancient  ruins,  thou  wilt  raise 
again  the  long-deserted  foundations, 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


53 


And  men  will  call  thee,  Repairer  of  ruins,  Restorer  of  de¬ 
stroyed  places  for  inhabiting.” 

(Isa.  lviii.,  4,  6-8,  12.) 

We  see  from  this  that  Nehemiah  was  not  the  only 
person  who  revolted  against  the  inhumanity  of  the 
aristocrats.  Had  he  inquired,  he  would  have  found 
out  this  cruel  conduct  before.  For  it  was  not  only 
the  rebuilding  of  the  walls  which  had  given  occasion 
to  the  usurers  to  torment  the  commonalty.  He  did 
not  inquire,  because  he  was  too  busy  with  high  mat¬ 
ters  to  look  into  small  details.  Nor  had  his  kinsman 
Hanani  warned  him  of  the  need  which  existed  for  a 
thorough  social  reform  ;  Hanani  was  entirely  ab¬ 
sorbed  in  the  idea  of  the  necessity  for  ensuring  reli¬ 
gious  isolation.  And  so  Nehemiah,  who  also  regarded 
this  object  as  vital,  drew  these  poor  people  from  their 
country  homes  to  labour  on  the  wall  without  having 
made  due  provision  for  their  compensation.  Did  he 
blame  himself  for  this?  He  has  unfortunately  left 
no  record  in  his  autobiography. 

Equally  unrecorded  are  the  rest  of  the  acts  of 
Nehemiah  during  his  first  visit.  Possibly  the  later 
writer  who  edited  his  work  has  omitted  some  sections 
which  did  not  fit  into  his  own  plan.  Nor  do  we  know 
the  name  and  the  religious  tendency  of  the  Tirshatha 
(i.  e .,  royal  representative)  to  whom  Nehemiah  re¬ 
signed  the  reigns  of  power.  It  is  no  great  matter ; 


54  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


whoever  the  Tirshatha  was,  he  had  not  the  courage 
to  cope  with  the  Jewish  aristocrats,  who  are  found 
at  a  later  time  as  intimate  with  the  leaders  of  the 
Samaritans  as  if  the  wall  had  never  been  repaired. 
There  was  still  a  gulf  between  Babylonian  and 
Judaean  orthodoxy. 

Can  we  doubt  that  this  caused  much  dissatisfac¬ 
tion  in  the  Jewries  of  Babylonia?  or  hesitate  to  con¬ 
nect  it  with  the  first  great  certain  return  of  Jewish 
exiles  to  Palestine  under  Ezra  the  scribe  ?  This  great 
return  would  naturally  be  preceded  by  a  journey  of 
some  of  the  leading  Jews,  including  Ezra,  to  the 
Persian  court  with  a  petition  for  royal  encouragement. 
And  it  is  a  fortunate  circumstance  that  an  authentic 
utterance  of  Ezra  himself  places  this  beyond  all  doubt, 
and  enables  us  to  infer  the  nature  of  his  petition  to 
Artaxerxes.  These  are  the  words  to  which  I  refer : — 

“  Blessed  be  Jehovah,  the  God  of  our  fathers,  who  has 
put  such  a  thing  as  this  into  the  king’s  mind,  to  beautify 
Jehovah’s  temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  has  caused  me  to  find 
favour  before  the  king  and  his  counsellors  and  before  all 
the  king’s  mighty  princes.”  (Ezr.  vii.,  27,  28.) 

It  appears  then  that  the  object  of  Ezra  and  his  party 
was  a  distinctly  religious  one.  It  was  not  a  mere 
national  migration  for  which  he  desired  the  royal 
permission,  but  a  grand  attempt  to  prepare  the  way 
for  the  still  delayed  return  of  Jehovah  to  His  land. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  55 


To  him,  as  to  Haggai  and  Zechariah  before  him,  a 
beautiful  temple  was  a  necessary  condition  of  the 
restoration  of  Israel  to  the  divine  favour.  The  sup¬ 
posed  firman,  however,  which  is  inserted  before  the 
words  of  Ezra  which  I  have  just  quoted  is  much 
more  precise  in  its  expressions.  It  declares  that 
Ezra  the  priest  *  and  scribe  is  sent  by  the  king  and 
his  counsellors  to  institute  an  inquiry  into  Judaean 
religion  on  the  basis  of  the  law  which  is  in  his  hand. 
It  even  empowers  Ezra  to  appoint  magistrates  and 
judges  to  judge  the  people  of  the  province  west  of 
the  Euphrates  in  accordance  with  this  law,  and  should 
there  be  any  who  presume  to  disobey,  or  refuse  to 
be  taught,  a  strict  sentence  is  to  be  passed  upon 
them,  ranging  from  simple  imprisonment  to  confisca¬ 
tion  of  goods,  banishment,  and  death. f  This  is  all 
very  strange.  A  violent  interference  with  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  their  J  udaean  subjects  would  have  been  anew 
departure  in  the  policy  of  the  Persian  kings.  Ezra 
makes  no  reference  to  any  other  object  as  approved 
by  the  king  but  that  of  the  decoration  of  the  temple. 
He  also  expressly  says  that  he  would  not  ask  the 
king  for  a  military  escort,  because  he  had  said  so 
much  about  divine  providence  (Ezr.  viii.,  22)  ;  this 

*  Some  scholars  doubt  whether  the  priestly  character  of  Ezra  is 
historically  certain. 

f  Ezr.  vii.,  11-26  ;  cf.  2  Chron.  xv.,  13. 


56  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


hardly  looks  as  if  he  thought  of  pushing  his  reforms 
with  the  help  of  the  government.  That  the  firman 
is  skilfully  written,  I  should  be  the  last  to  deny,  but 
to  defend  it  in  its  present  form  as  a  historical  docu¬ 
ment,  is  beyond  my  ingenuity.*  Nor  am  I  at  all 
sure  that  the  date  given  in  Ezra  vii.,  8,  9  is  correct. 

It  is,  however,  quite  certain  that  a  considerable 
party  of  Babylonian  Jews  arrived  at  Jerusalem  under 
Ezra.  Indeed,  the  activity  of  Ezra,  like  that  of  Ne- 
hemiah,  is  absolutely  necessary  to  explain  the  course 
of  later  Jewish  history.  But  what  he  actually  did 
cannot  in  all  points  be  ascertained.  The  account 
transmitted  by  the  Chronicler  in  the  Books  of  Ezra 
and  Nehemiah  may  be  based  on  contemporary  nar¬ 
ratives,  but  contemporary  narratives  are  not  always 
strictly  faithful.  I  know  that  I  am  touching  the  fringe 
of  a  troublesome  question,  but  it  is  one  which  the  stud¬ 
ent  cannot  evade  considering,  and  on  which  I  must 
tell  him  my  own  conclusion.  No  one  likes  to  set 
aside  the  authority  of  an  old  document,  but  here  it 
appears  to  me  quite  unavoidable.  Whatever  view 
we  take  of  the  meaning  of  the  narrator,  the  story 
will  not  stand  the  tests  of  historical  criticism.  One 

*  On  this  and  on  the  other  problems  of  the  careers  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah,  see  special  articles  in  Messrs.  A.  &  C.  Black’s  Encyclo¬ 
pedia  Biblica,  and  cf.  the  translation  of  the  Books  of  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  (with  notes)  by  Guthe  in  Prof.  Haupt’s  Bible.  See  also 
Guthe’s  History  of  Israel  (German). 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


57 


possible  view  is  that  Ezra,  on  his  arrival  with  firman 
and  lawbook,  found  the  former  quite  useless  owing 
to  the  temper  of  the  people,  and  waited  thirteen 
years  before  he  ventured  publicly  to  introduce  the 
latter.  Others  think  that  the  narrator  meant  some¬ 
thing  quite  different,  viz.,  that  Ezra  did  not  think  it 
important  to  feel  his  way  and  try  his  powers  of  per¬ 
suasion,  but  at  once  introduced  the  law  amidst  the 
rejoicings  of  the  multitude.  I  think  myself  that  the 
latter  view  of  the  writer’s  meaning  is  the  most  nat¬ 
ural  one,  but  I  find  it  not  less  difficult  to  accept  as 
historical  than  the  former.  How,  except  by  an  ap¬ 
peal  to  force,  Ezra  can  have  won  immediate  accept¬ 
ance  for  his  lawbook,  I  do  not  understand.  Did  he 
make  such  an  appeal,  according  to  the  document? 
No.  The  statement  is  that  “  all  the  people.  .  .  . 

spoke  to  Ezra  the  scribe  to  bring  the  book  of  the 
Law  of  Moses  which  Jehovah  had  commanded  Israel  ” 
(Neh.  viii.,  i),  and  that  on  the  next  day  the  heads  of 
families  joined  the  priests  and  Levites  in  a  visit  to 
the  great  legal  expert,  Ezra,  to  learn  the  orthodox 
mode  of  keeping  the  Feast  of  Booths.  Now  I  do 
not  deny  that  there  was  at  this  time  a  sincere  at¬ 
tachment  on  the  part  of  the  leading  Judaeans  to  the 
older  law,  and  I  fully  recognise  the  moral  influence 
which  must  have  been  exerted  by  the  new  settlers 
from  Babylonia,  but  I  doubt  whether  a  lawbook  dif- 


58  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


fering  so  widely  from  the  older  one  (I  will  explain 
what  Ezra’s  lawbook  was  presently),  can  have  been 
at  once  accepted  by  the  whole  people  and  especially 
by  the  aristocratic  class.  True,  the  other  view  ap¬ 
pears  not  less  questionable.  How  can  Ezra  have 
waited  thirteen  years  before  he  obeyed,  and  that 
most  imperfectly,  the  plain  command  of  Artaxerxes  ? 
I  must  confess,  too,  that  the  events  which,  according 
to  the  extant  records,  followed  this  supposed  publi¬ 
cation  and  solemn  acceptance  of  the  law  confirm  me 
in  my  sceptical  attitude.  I  can  partly  understand 
the  story  of  the  introduction  of  the  older  lawbook 
under  Josiah,  but  I  cannot  in  the  least  comprehend 
the  externally  parallel  narrative  in  Neh.  viii.  A 
small  kernel  of  fact  may  not  unreasonably  be  ad¬ 
mitted.  But  the  story,  as  it  stands,  is,  I  greatly  fear, 
unhistorical. 

Not  less  full  of  improbability  is  the  story  of  the 
marriage-reforms  in  Ezra  ix.,  x.  Such  a  delicate 
matter  as  the  alteration  of  marriage-customs  cannot 
have  been  brought  about  so  quickly  and  in  such  a 
rough-and-ready  way.  That  the  sight  of  Ezra,  sit¬ 
ting  with  dishevelled  hair  in  a  stupor,  and  then  the 
hearing  of  a  solemn  liturgical  prayer,  should  have 
so  unnerved  the  people  who  had  married  non-Jewish 
wives  that  they  straightway  volunteered  to  turn  away 
their  wives  and  their  children,  and  that  three  days 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  59 


afterwards  a  still  larger  assembly  should  have  gathered 
in  cold  rainy  weather  in  the  open  air,  and  sanctioned 
the  appointment  of  a  commission  to  compel  the 
offenders  to  carry  out  this  resolution,  is  surely  in¬ 
credible.  That  there  was  anything  like  a  general 
dismissal  of  non-Jewish  wives  and  their  children,  not 
only  psychological  considerations,  but  certain  impor¬ 
tant  facts  recorded  in  our  documents*  forbid  us  to 
believe. 

Let  no  one  suppose  that  I  am  trying  to  convert 
Ezra  into  a  model  of  humanity.  On  the  contrary,  I 
think  it  likely  that  he  was  at  first  far  too  vehement  in 
his  language  and  rigorous  in  his  demands,  and  I  must 
express  a  fear  that  some  too  pliant  persons  may  have 
given  way  to  him.  If  these  surmises  are  correct, 
the  scribe  Ezra  was  guilty  of  a  distinct  denial  of  the 
divine  fatherhood — a  doctrine  expressed  in  the  very 
first  chapter  of  the  narrative  which  introduces  his 
lawbook.  I  am  bound  to  denounce  this  as  much  as 
I  sympathise  with  and  admire  the  very  different 
attitude  of  the  apostle  Paul.  Nor  can  I  help  referring 
in  this  connection  to  the  blessings  which  accrued  to 
the  English  race  through  the  union  of  a  heathen  king 
of  Kent  with  a  Christian  princess  from  France. 
Gratitude  for  these  blessings  compels  me  to  shrink 
with  horror  from  the  conduct  of  Ezra,  if  he  gave 
*See  Ezr.  x.,  15  ;  Neh.  xiii.,  23-27. 


6o  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


sufficient  occasion  for  a  narrative  like  that  in  Ezra 
ix.,  x. 

And  yet,  even  if  Ezra  was  so  far  guilty,  I  must 
not  ignore  the  existence  of  extenuating  circumstances. 
This  vehemence  and  rigour  (so  far  as  they  are  his¬ 
torical)  were  but  the  excess  of  his  religious  patriotism. 
They  arose  out  of  his  dread  of  the  too  possible  dis¬ 
astrous  consequences  of  mixed  marriages.  A  child 
is  always  affected  permanently  for  good  or  for  evil 
by  the  religion  of  its  mother.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  religion  of  ancient  Egypt  became  partly 
Semitic  through  the  intermarriage  of  Egyptians  and 
Syrians,  and  some  of  the  least  desirable  religious 
peculiarities  of  the  early  Israelites  were  largely  due 
to  their  intermarriage  with  the  Canaanites.  That 
was  chiefly  why  Ezra  and  Nehemiah  were  so  much 
opposed  to  mixed  marriages.  The  religion  which 
they  desired  to  promote  was  a  book-religion,  which 
to  a  considerable  extent  recognised  the  claims  of 
development ;  those  of  the  Samaritans  and  the 
other  small  nations  of  Palestine  were  local,  unpro¬ 
gressive  religions,  based  on  ancient  custom.  No 
doubt  Ezra’s  policy  was  opposed  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  divine  fatherhood  expressed  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis.  But  we  can  show  from  the  Book  of 
Malachi  *  that  many  of  those  with  whom  Ezra  would 

*  Mai.  ii  ,  10-16. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


61 


fain  have  dealt  so  barbarously  had  offered  an  equally 
flat  contradiction  to  that  great  doctrine  by  turning 
adrift  the  Jewish  wives  whom  they  had  married  in 
their  youth  in  order  to  marry  foreign  women. 
“Have  we  not  all  one  Father?  has  not  one  God 
created  us?”  are  the  words  in  which  Malachi  indig¬ 
nantly  reproves  them.  He  also  mentions  the  sad 
divisions  in  families  which  had  arisen  from  these 
cruel  divorces,  the  children  having  apparently  taken 
the  part  of  their  disgraced  mothers.  And  he  seems 
to  have  painfully  felt  his  own  inability  to  reform  this 
abuse,  for  he  (or  some  not  much  later  writer)  has 
added  this  appendix  to  his  prophecy, — 

“  Behold,  I  send  you  the  prophet  Elijah  before  Je¬ 
hovah’s  great  and  terrible  day  come.  He  shall  turn  the 
hearts  of  the  fathers  to  the  children,  and  the  hearts  of 
the  children  to  their  fathers,  lest  I  come  and  smite  the 
land  with  a  curse  ”  (Mai.  iv.,  5,  6). 

In  other  words,  Malachi  looked  for  a  great  religious 
reformer,  who  should  make  the  people  think  of  their 
family  and  social  obligations,  and  of  Jehovah’s  hatred 
for  all  un-Israelitish  conduct.  Jehovah  had  made 
no  covenant  except  with  Israel ;  those  who  formed 
an  alliance  of  any  kind,  either  with  half-Jews  like  the 
Samaritans,  or  with  non-Jews  like  the  Philistines, 
Ammonites,  and  Moabites,  and  who,  in  order  to  do 
this,  had  put  away  their  Jewish  wives,  provoked  His 


62  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


displeasure.  Such,  too,  we  may  presume  was  the 
theory  of  marriage  inculcated  by  Ezra. 

Very  little,  then,  remains  to  the  critical  historian 
of  the  details  of  the  story  in  Ezra  ix.,  x.  A  some¬ 
what  more  favourable  judgment  can,  in  my  opinion, 
be  passed  on  the  account  of  the  rise  of  the  so-called 
congregation,  or  to  borrow  a  more  appropriate  Greek 
term,  the  Ecclesia.*  This  narrative  seems  originally 
to  have  followed  on  that  in  Ezr.  ix.,  x.,  the  last 
words  of  which,  as  given  in  the  true  Septuagint  text, 
are  “  and  they  dismissed  them  (i.  e .,  their  foreign 
wives)  with  their  children.”  It  also  undoubtedly 
presupposes  that  Ezra’s  lawbook  had  been  generally 
accepted  and  was  now  in  force.  For  it  speaks  of  a 
long  reading  from  the  book  of  the  law  of  Jehovah  as 
having  preceded  the  liturgical  confession  uttered  by 
the  Levites  ;  the  contents  of  the  lawbook  were  some¬ 
thing  quite  new  to  the  audience.  Now  it  is  quite 
true  that  this  cannot  be  the  historical  background  of 
the  formation  of  the  congregation.  The  mixed  mar¬ 
riages  cannot  to  any  great  extent  have  been  dissolved, 
and  the  lawbook  of  Ezra  cannot  have  been  generally 
or  publicly  accepted.  But  the  scene  in  the  fore¬ 
ground  of  the  picture  may  still  be  correct.  The 
Babylonian  Jews  who  came  up  with  Ezra  certainly 
regarded  themselves  as  the  true  Israelites,  and  it  was 

*  Cf.,  Hort,  The  Christian  Ecclesia  (1896). 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  63 


only  natural  that  they  should  form  themselves  into 
what  claimed  to  be  a  national  Ecclesia  or  assembly 
— the  ideas  of  the  church  and  the  nation  being  hence¬ 
forth  inseparably  fused  together.*  And  to  this  as¬ 
sembly  or  congregation  they  would  naturally  admit, 
first,  all  who  in  the  past  evil  days  had  protested 
against  semi-heathenism,  and  who,  in  the  words  of 
Malachi  (iii.,  16),  had  “  spoken  often  one  to  the 
other, ”f  and  next,  those  who,  under  the  influence  of 
the  new  colonists,  had  given  up  their  heretical  cus¬ 
toms,  or,  in  the  language  of  a  contemporary,  J  had 
“turned  from  transgression  in  Jacob”  (Isa.  lix.,  20). 
This  congregation  is  the  “  Zion  ”  of  the  later  chapters 
of  Isaiah,  and  its  members  are  the  “  poor,”  the 
“meek,”  the  “mourners  in  Zion,”  the  “trembling 
listeners  to  Jehovah’s  word,”  of  whom  we  read  in 
late  psalms,  prophecies,  and  narratives. §  This  con¬ 
gregation  is  also  the  feeble  beginning  of  the  great 
Jewish  church,  and  the  contract  or  covenant  which 
its  members,  after  a  solemn  reading  of  the  new  law¬ 
book,  probably  subscribed,  must  have  contained  the 

*  According  to  the  post-exilic  list  in  Ezr.  ii.  (Neh.  vii.,  i  Esdr.  v.), 
the  number  of  men  in  the  community  was  42,360,  i.  <?.,  some  125,000 
souls. 

f  I.  e. ,  had  formed  themselves  into  a  close  association. 

\  See  Isaiah  in  the  Polychrome  Bible. 


64  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


chief  obligations  which  were  the  condition  of  the 
privileges  granted  to  the  true  Israel — privileges  which 
are  summed  up  in  these  remarkable  words  from  the 
third  part  of  Isaiah  : 

“  And  as  for  Me,  this  is  My  covenant  with  them,  saith 
Jehovah  :  My  spirit  which  is  upon  thee  [/.  e .,  upon  the 
true  Israel],  and  My  words  which  I  have  put  into  thy 
mouth,  shall  not  remove  from  thy  mouth,  nor  from  that 
of  thine  offspring,  nor  from  that  of  thine  offspring’s 
offspring,  from  henceforth  unto  eternity  ”  (Isa.  lix.,  21). 

At  this  historical  turning-point  the  scribe,  Ezra, 
suddenly  disappears.  The  chief  place  in  the  narra¬ 
tive  is  once  more  occupied  by  Nehemiah,  whom  the 
news  of  Ezra’s  comparative  failure  seems  to  have 
drawn  from  his  home  in  Susa.*  Probably  he  came 
on  furlough  as  temporary  governor  or  special  high 
commissioner.  It  is  noticeable  that  even  Nehemiah 
does  not  mention  Ezra  in  the  short  second  part  of 
his  memoirs.  He  confines  himself  to  a  business-like 
description  of  his  own  doings.  He  had  three  prac¬ 
tical  objects.  They  are  the  same  which  are  given  in 
the  traditional  account  of  the  covenant  of  the  con¬ 
gregation,  viz.,  the  abolition  of  mixed  marriages,  and 
of  Sabbath  traffic,  and  the  provision  of  regular  sup¬ 
plies  for  the  temple  services  and  for  the  priests  and 
Levites. 


*  Neh.  xiii.  6. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  65 


Let  us  take  the  last  of  these  points  first:  Nehe¬ 
miah  found  that  the  support  of  the  Levites  had  been 
so  sadly  neglected  that  they  had  deserted  their  posts 
and  retired  to  their  country  allotments.*  Strange  to 
say,  the  priest  Eliashib  (I  suppose  he  was  the  high 
priest  of  that  name),  acquiescing  in  the  decadence 
of  the  ecclesiastical  system,  had  conceded  the  use 
of  a  large  store-chamber,  formerly  in  the  charge  of 
the  Levites,  to  Tobiah  the  Ammonite. f  Here,  per¬ 
haps,  as  the  man  of  business  of  the  temple,  Tobiah 
had  installed  himself,  with  his  household  utensils, 
close  to  his  priestly  friend.  Nehemiah,  according  to 
his  wont,  took  prompt  action.  He  cast  out  all  To¬ 
biah’s  property,  and  had  the  chamber  purified,  just 
as  if  Tobiah  had  been  a  heathen.^:  To  Eliashib  we 
are  not  told  that  he  said  anything,  but  to  the  civil 
rulers,  who  ought  to  have  stirred  up  the  people  to 
bring  their  offerings,  he  gave  a  short  but  emphatic 
rebuke,  “Why  is  the  house  of  God  forsaken  ”?  § 
The  effect  was  immediate.  The  Levites  were  gath¬ 
ered  together,  and  the  arrears  of  tithe  called  in.fl 
Thus  this  man  of  affairs,  with  his  beneficently  im- 

*  Neh.  xiii.,  io. 

f  Neh.  xiii.,  4,  5. 

\  Neh.  xiii.,  7-9. 

§  These  words  have  the  ring  of  spontaneity.  They  are  not  taken 
from  Neh.  x.,  39,  but  were  evidently  copied  by  the  framer  of  the 
supposed  covenant. 

I  Neh.  xiii.,  11,  12. 

5 


66  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


perious  manner,  succeeded  where  prophets  like  Mal- 
achi  and  priestly  reformers  like  Ezra  had  failed. 

It  was  a  much  harder  task  to  get  the  Sabbath  ob¬ 
served  in  the  new  orthodox  fashion.  Deuteronomy 
had  only  prescribed  rest  from  the  daily  toil  of  hus¬ 
bandry  ;  the  priestly  code  required  abstinence  from 
all  secular  occupation,  and  represented  even  gather¬ 
ing  sticks  on  the  Sabbath  as  an  offence  deserving 
capital  punishment.  *  Nehemiah,  a  partisan  of  this 
code,  determined  to  press  the  later  form  of  the  Sab¬ 
bath  precept.  He  would  trust  no  information,  but, 
as  on  his  first  arrival  at  Jerusalem,  went  out  to 
gather  facts  for  himself,  f  It  was  a  Sabbath-day,  and 
the  villages  were  enlivened  with  the  merry  shouts  of 
those  who  trod  the  grapes  in  the  wine-press,  inno¬ 
cently  supposing  that  this  pleasant  task  was  no 
violation  of  the  Sabbath  law.  Then  he  looked  else¬ 
where,  and  saw  villagers  lading  their  asses  with  grain, 
fruit,  and  wine,  so  as  to  arrive  in  Jerusalem  on  the 
next  market-day.  Nehemiah  kept  his  counsel,  but 
when  the  market-day  came  he  warned  the  sellers  not 
to  start  from  home  on  the  Sabbath-day  again.  The 
Sabbath  trade  in  fish  also  excited  his  indignation, 
though  he  found  fault  not  so  much  with  the  Tyrians 
who  sold,  as  with  the  Jews  who  bought  the  fish4 

*  Num,  xv.,  32-36.  f  Neh.  xiii.,  15-22. 

\  It  was  salted  and  dried  fish  from  the  Mediterranean. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  67 


Nehemiah  administered  a  severe  rebuke  to  the  prin¬ 
cipal  Jews,  reminding  them  that  Sabbath-breaking 
had  brought  ruin  in  the  past,  and  that  more  troubles 
would  be  the  consequence  of  such  profane  conduct. 
He  gave  orders  that  the  city  gates  should  be  closed 
all  through  the  Sabbath,  and  that  no  one  bringing 
any  merchandise  should  be  admitted.  The  traders 
saw  nothing  for  it  but  to  pass  the  twenty-four  hours 
of  the  Sabbath  without  the  walls.  But  even  this 
irritated  the  governor.  The  Jews  who  went  out  into 
the  country  on  the  Sabbath  might  be  induced  to 
attempt  an  infraction  of  the  law.  So  Nehemiah 
threatened  the  traders  that  unless  they  desisted  alto¬ 
gether,  he  would  drive  them  from  the  neighbourhood 
by  force. 

It  is  a  scene  from  real  life  which  we  have  before 
us,  and  it  helps  us  to  understand  the  transition  from 
the  gentle  code  of  Deuteronomy  to  the  consistently 
severe  code  of  Ezra.  We  have  interesting  utterances 
of  men  who  sympathised  with  Nehemiah  in  what  I 
may  call  the  Nehemiah  section  of  the  Book  of  Isa¬ 
iah — I  refer,  of  course,  to  the  well-known  sayings  on 
the  Sabbath  in  Isa.  lvi.,  2,  6;  lviii.,  13.  The  passages 
are  not  fine  enough  to  quote  ;  in  fact,  the  poetry  of 
the  Sabbath  sentiment  waited  many  centuries  for  a 
worthy  expression. 

And  now  comes  the  turn  of  the  third  great  object 


68  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


of  the  reformers,  viz.,  the  abolition  of  mixed  mar- 
riages.  Two  noteworthy  facts  come  before  us.  The 
first  is  Nehemiah’s  lenience  to  the  common  people, 
whom  he  did  not  compel  to  send  away  their  Philis¬ 
tine,  or  Ammonite,  or  Moabite  wives.  With  almost 
frantic  excitement  he  made  the  offenders  swear  not 
to  promote  any  more  such  marriages  within  their 
families,  and  there  he  stopped.*  The  second  is  his 
severity  to  the  priests.  A  grandson  of  the  high 
priest  Eliashib  had  married  a  daughter  of  Sanballat. 
No  doubt  this  is  the  Manasseh  of  whom,  as  I  have 
already  mentioned,  Josephus  tells  us.  Nehemiah 
himself  relates  that  he  made  Jerusalem  too  hot  for 
the  offender,  who  fled  precipitately.  “  Remember 
it  is  to  them,  and  not  to  me,”  says  Nehemiah,  “  that 
I  have  attainted  priestly  dignitaries.”  “  On  the 
other  hand,”  he  continues,  “  I  have  purged  the 
priesthood  from  all  strangers,  and  maintained  each 
of  the  offices  of  the  priests,  and  of  the  Levites.”  f 
From  this  we  may  infer  that  Manasseh  had  com¬ 
panions  in  his  exile,  and  we  have  already  seen  that 
Nehemiah’s  view  of  his  character  is  not  the  only 
one  that  is  possible.  Indeed,  the  governor  himself 
brings  no  other  charge  against  him  but  that  of  hav¬ 
ing  criminally  polluted  a  consecrated  race.  Manas- 

*  Neh.  xiii.,  23-27. 

f  Neh.  xiii.,  28-30  (new  translation). 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  69 


seh  may  have  been  a  good,  and  was  certainly  in 
some  sense  a  great,  man.  His  reconstitution  of  the 
Samaritan  community  was  an  event  of  high  import¬ 
ance  in  the  history  of  Jewish  religion. 

Scanty  enough  are  the  record’s  of  Nehemiah’s 
second  visit,  but  they  suffice  to  show  that  his  chief 
interest  at  this  time  was  ecclesiastical.  Perhaps  he 
did  not  interfere  with  the  civil  government ;  this 
may  have  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  person  whom 
he  found  in  office.  His  main  objects  were  those  of 
Ezra,  and  it  was  his  good  fortune  to  succeed  where 
the  priestly  scribe  had  failed,  not  merely  because 
he  had  the  royal  authority,  but  because  of  his  great 
personal  qualities.  Still,  we  must  not  allow  our¬ 
selves  to  underrate  Ezra.  If  the  traditional  picture 
of  his  activity  is  not  fully  historical,  it  devolves  upon 
us  to  fill  up  the  deficiencies  of  the  narrative  by  rea¬ 
sonable  conjecture.  We  must  remember  that  Ezra 
was  a  theorist  by  education,  and  that  he  began  his 
practical  career  with  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  the 
situation.  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  intelli¬ 
gible  that  he  was  at  first  too  vehement  and  arbi¬ 
trary.  But  it  is  psychologically  probable  that  when 
his  first  injudicious  effort  had  failed,  he  showed  him¬ 
self  in  a  more  pleasing  light.  The  portrait  of  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah,  in  some  beautiful  songs  to 
which  I  shall  refer,  may  not  indeed  have  been 


70  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


sketched  from  Ezra,  but  seems  to  embody  the  ideal 
of  the  class  to  which  Ezra  belonged.  I  believe  that 
his  hidden  life  in  the  years  which  succeeded  his  pub¬ 
lic  failure  may  have  been  great  in  the  eyes  of  God. 
I  believe  that  he  must  have  come  to  understand  how 
ill  adapted  the  lawbook  was  in  its  original  form  to 
the  wants  of  the  Judaeans,  and  that  he  devoted  him¬ 
self  with  considerate  thoughtfulness  to  correcting 
some  of  its  deficiencies.  Henceforth  he  did  not 
“  cry,  nor  roar,*  nor  cause  his  voice  to  be  heard  in 
the  street.”  With  old  and  new  friends  he  laboured 
to  commend  the  claims  of  the  reinterpreted  law  of 
Jehovah  to  the  citizens  of  Jerusalem.  And  though 
I  cannot  venture  to  believe  that  he  wrote  psalms,  I 
can  imagine  that  he  would  have  joined  heartily  in 
singing  words  like  these : 

“  Make  Thy  face  to  shine  upon  Thy  servant, 

And  teach  me  Thy  statutes. 

Streams  of  water  run  down  mine  eyes 
Because  men  keep  not  Thy  law.” 

(Ps.  cxix.,  135,  136.) 

There  is  yet  another  reason  why  Ezra  should  be 
had  in  honour,  which  rests  probably  on  a  firmer 
basis  than  the  foregoing  conjecture.  In  a  docu¬ 
ment  which  is,  at  any  rate,  early — I  mean  the  sup¬ 
posed  firman  of  Artaxerxes  (Ezr.  vii.,  12,  21) — he  is 

*  See  rendering  of  Isa.  xlii.,  2  (with  note)  in  the  Polychrome  Bible . 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  71 


described  as  the  “  writer  of  the  law  of  the  God  of 
heaven,”  i.  e .,  of  that  law  which  Ezra  brought  with 
him  to  Jerusalem,  and  which  the  firman  elsewhere 
calls  “  the  law  of  thy  God  which  is  in  thy  hand.”  I 
believe  that  by  this  title  the  writer  meant  that  Ezra 
was  the  author  or  editor  of  the  lawbook  referred  to, 
for  if  “  scribe  ”  merely  meant  “  copyist,”  what  object 
would  there  be  in  giving  Ezra  the  title  ?  It  would 
surely  be  no  additional  honour  for  a  priest  to  be 
called  a  copyist.  The  firman  indeed,  cannot  be 
regarded  as  an  authority  for  the  views  of  Artaxerxes, 
but  the  phrase  “  writer  of  the  law  of  the  God  of 
heaven  ”  (i.  e.y  of  Jehovah)  probably  represents  what 
Ezra  said  of  himself  when  he  came  to  Jerusalem. 
We  are  told  that  when,  in  Josiah’s  time,  the  Deuter- 
onomic  Law  was  brought  before  the  secretary  of 
state,  Hilkiah  the  chief  priest  stated  what  he  knew 
of  the  history  of  the  document.*  Ezra,  too,  was 
no  doubt  called  upon  to  do  this  by  the  rulers 
of  the  Jerusalem-community,  and  he  probably  said 
that  by  the  spirit  of  Jehovah  he  had  reproduced  the 
Law  of  Moses  more  perfectly  than  his  predecessors.*)* 
A  later  writer,  whose  words  are  preserved  in  Ezr. 
vii.,  6-10,  was  ignorant  of  this.  He  represents  Ezra 

*  2  Kings  xxii.,  8. 

f  Esdr.  xiv.,  44,  is,  of  course,  a  wild  fiction.  For  “204  ”  read  “  94  ” 
(see  Ball’s  Variorum  Apocrypha). 


72  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


as  merely  an  experienced  scholar  in  the  law  of 
Jehovah,  who  had  devoted  himself  to  teaching  the 
divine  statutes. 

The  lawbook  of  Ezra  was  no  doubt  a  smaller 
work  than  what  now  passes  among  critics  as  the 
Priestly  Code.  Nor  can  we  admit  that  it  was 
altogether  the  work  of  Ezra.  In  the  Babylonian,  as 
well  as  in  the  early  Persian  period,  different  schools 
of  priests  appear  to  have  occupied  themselves  with 
recombining,  recasting,  and  supplementing  the  earlier 
laws  and  legal  traditions.  The  state  of  Judaean 
religion  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  made 
it  plain  that  these  labours  needed  to  be  brought  to 
a  provisional  close,  and  it  was  probably  Ezra  who 
took  the  lead  in  the  redaction  of  the  material.  It 
was  his  province,  I  suppose,  to  select,  arrange,  and 
complete  the  literary  matter  prepared  by  his  fellow- 
priests. 

You  will  now  understand  the  sense  in  which  I 
have  spoken  of  Ezra’s  lawbook  as  new.  It  was  new 
by  comparison  with  Deuteronomy,  just  as  Deuter¬ 
onomy  in  its  day  (the  time  of  Josiah)  was  new 
by  comparison  with  the  Book  of  the  Covenant, 
which  belonged  perhaps  to  the  time  of  Jehoshaphat. 
But  it  professed  to  hand  on  the  old  Mosaic  laws 
and  principles  in  a  form  adapted  to  the  age  of 
Ezra;  and  its  profession  was  not  unjustified.  For 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  73 


it  was  perfectly  clear  to  theists  of  that  period  that 
God  had  both  the  will  and  the  power  to  endow 
chosen  men  with  the  spirit  and  capacity  of  Moses, 
just  as,  according  to  Malachi,  he  would  at  a  future 
time  endow  a  chosen  prophet  with  the  spirit  and 
capacity  of  Elijah.  I  do  not  therefore  mean  by  the 
phrase,  a  new  lawbook,  a  book  that  was  produced 
for  the  first  time  from  the  fertile  brain  of  an 
enthusiast. 

To  understand  Ezra’s  lawbook  it  is  necessary  to 
realise  its  object.  This  was  not  to  cultivate  a  lofty 
type  of  personal  piety,  but  to  guard  against  a  recur¬ 
rence  of  the  great  national  calamity  of  the  past. 
The  old  religion  of  Israel,  with  all  its  attractive  va¬ 
riety  of  local  and  family  rites,  had  proved  itself  inad¬ 
equate.  The  presence  of  the  Divine  King  among  His 
people  had  been  continually  interrupted.  Tyrants 
had  often  usurped  the  dominion,  for  how  could  a 
God  be  said  to  rule  in  a  conquered  or  even  in  a 
tributary  land  ?  and  there  had  also  been  a  perma¬ 
nent  obscuration  of  the  theocracy  by  the  institution 
of  a  human  royalty.  Hence  the  necessity  of  a  per¬ 
fect  divine  law  to  which  priests  and  laymen,  rich  and 
poor,  should  be  equally  subject — a  law  which  should 
take  into  account  the  huge  difference  between  God 
and  man,  and  should  spare  no  pains  in  determining 
the  points  in  which  a  supernatural  God  would  be  neces- 


74  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


sarily  offended — i.  e.,  in  marking  the  limits  between 
the  holy  and  the  unholy,  the  sacred  and  the  profane. 
And  since  the  primitive  confusion  of  the  material 
and  the  ethical  was  not  yet  overcome,  and  since  it 
was  vastly  easier  to  deal  with  material  than  with 
ethical  violations  of  the  divine  sanctity,  it  came  to 
pass  that  the  main  subject  of  the  Jewish,  as  well  as 
of  the  Zoroastrian,  law,  was  the  distinction  between 
clean  and  unclean,  and  the  manner  in  which  lost 
ceremonial  purity  could  be  recovered.  It  was  only 
those  who  were  technically  clean  who  could  appear 
before  God,  and  the  object  of  the  elaborate  sacrifi¬ 
cial  system  was  not  to  produce  peace  of  mind  for 
the  individual,  but  to  unify  the  community  on  a 
sound  religious  basis,  maintaining  its  consecrated 
character  unimpaired.  The  individual  who  volun¬ 
tarily  or  involuntarily  transgressed  any  precept  of 
the  law  injured  the  sanctity  of  the  community.  As 
long,  therefore,  as  his  transgression  was  unatoned  for, 
he  was  a  source  of  danger  to  that  organic  whole  of 
which  he  was  a  member.  It  mattered  not  whether 
the  precept  were  moral  or  ritual ;  the  divine  holiness 
had  been  wronged,  and  satisfaction  had  to  be  given, 
either  by  ceremonial  means  or  by  the  cutting  off  of 
the  offending  branch  from  the  parent  stem.* 

*  A  punishment  which,  owing  to  the  virtual  abolition  of  the  clan 
associations,  placed  him  who  suffered  it  in  a  truly  terrible  position. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  75 


The  most  remarkable  evidence  that  the  legislation 
of  Ezra’s  school  was  planned  in  the  interest  of  the 
community,  and  not  of  the  individual,  is  supplied  by 
the  rites  of  the  Day  of  Atonement.  The  object  of 
these  was  to  clear  away  any  impurity  which  the 
atoning  acts  of  the  past  year  might  still  have  left  in 
the  community  or  in  the  sanctuary.  They  cannot 
however  be  shown  to  have  existed  as  early  as  the 
time  of  Ezra,  and  probably  are  among  the  passages 
which  are  late  insertions  in  the  Levitical  legislation.* 
One  of  the  details  of  the  ritual  is  so  strange,  and 
sheds  so  much  light  on  the  low  spiritual  state  of  the 
mass  of  the  Jews,  that  I  refer  to  it  now.  It  has,  in 
fact,  strong  affinities  to  customs  mentioned  by  Mr. 
Frazer,  author  of  The  Golden  Bough ,  as  still  preva¬ 
lent  in  parts  of  India,  Borneo,  and  other  countries. 
The  natives  of  these  regions  firmly  believe  that  the 
demons  who  bring  disasters  and  other  calamities  can 
be  driven  away  by  means  of  loud  cries  addressed  to 
some  quasi-sacrificial  animal  such  as  a  goat,  and  we 
know  from  the  Mishna  that  just  such  shouts,  with  just 
such  an  object,  were  addressed  to  the  so-called  scape¬ 
goat  on  the  annual  Day  of  Atonement.  This  unfortu¬ 
nate  animal  was  driven  into  the  wilderness  bearing 
away  all  the  sins  committed  by  the  Jews  during  the 

*  To  some  extent  they  were  anticipated  by  a  very  simple  ceremony 
enjoined  by  Ezekiel  (Ezek.  xlv.,  10-20). 


7 6  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


year,  and  the  practice  was  to  push  it  over  a  certain 
crag  not  far  from  Jerusalem,  which  has  been  identi¬ 
fied,  upon  which  it  was  received  by  Azazel,  one  of 
the  fallen  angels  for  whom  this  name,  which  is  of 
quite  a  recent  type,  was  invented.*  Certainly  this 
was  a  very  strange  concession  to  make  to  popular 
superstition,  but  it  had  this  incidental  advantage, 
that  it  counteracted  the  custom  of  sacrificing  to  gob¬ 
lins  of  the  wilderness  called  “  satyrs.”  f  In  fact,  we 
must  bear  in  mind  that  the  Jews  had  not  only 
hereditary  superstitions  of  their  own,  but  lived 
amidst  a  population  still  more  superstitious  than 
themselves,  and  that  it  was  practically  impossible, 
from  a  church-statesman’s  point  of  view,  to  avoid 
making  some  carefully  guarded  concessions  to  the 
weakness  of  human  nature.  Whether  Ezra  would 
have  sanctioned  so  big  a  concession  as  that  which 
relates  to  the  scapegoat  seems  to  me  doubtful.  And 
I  think  that  there  must  have  been  many  in  the  sub¬ 
sequent  period  who  entertained  a  strong  repugnance 
to  the  miserable  ceremony  of  the  scapegoat. 

Another  reason  why  it  is  of  importance  to  realise 
the  object  of  the  lawbook,  is  this — that  Protestant 

*  See  article  “Azazel”  in  Messrs.  A.  &  C.  Black’s  Encyclopedia 
Biblica. 

f  See  “Satyrs”  in  the  same  Encyclopedia.  Azazel  may,  as  the 
present  writer  has  suggested,  have  been  substituted  for  some  arch¬ 
goblin  of  Jewish  folklore. 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  77 


students  are  naturally  prone  to  criticise  the  legal 
religion  from  a  Pauline  point  of  view.  Now  Judaism 
as  a  whole  is  by  no  means  devoid  of  spirituality, 
and  has  true  saints  of  its  own,  but  the  Law  from 
which  it  so  largely  springs  cannot  stand  the  tests 
which  Pauline  Christians  apply  to  it.  The  Law  may 
indeed  encourage  a  deep  awe  of  God,  but  this  ser¬ 
vice  can  only  be  rendered  to  those  who  are  already 
predisposed  to  such  a  habit  of  mind.  I  speak,  of 
course,  of  the  effect  of  the  Law  itself,  and  not  as 
modified  by  the  perusal  of  the  prophetic  Scriptures, 
and  by  the  influence  of  the  sweet  hymns  of  the 
Psalter.  And  I  regret  that  through  unconsciously 
unfair  criticism  some  injustice  should  be  done  to  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  productions  of  the  religious 
spirit. 

There  is  yet  another  mistake  against  which  we  have 
to  guard — that  of  supposing  that  Ezra’s  book  was 
merely  a  lawbook.  The  legal  element  was  indeed 
predominant,  but  the  code  was  introduced,  or  accom¬ 
panied,  by  a  history  of  the  origin  of  the  sacred  peo¬ 
ple  and  the  sacred  institutions.  We  are  struck  in 
this  history  by  a  diminished,  though  by  no  means 
extinct,  regard  for  popular  traditions,  and  an  ab¬ 
sence  of  the  true  historical  interest.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  are  impressed  by  the  deep  religious  earnest¬ 
ness  of  the  writers,  whose  conception  of  God  is 


yS  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


higher  and  purer  than  that  of  the  earlier  narrators, 
and  whose  veneration  for  the  sacred  institutions  is 
such  that  they  declare  one  of  them  (the  Sabbath)  to 
have  been  ordained  at  the  Creation,  and  another 
(Circumcision)  to  be  as  old  as  Abraham.  The  pa¬ 
triarchs,  too,  have  put  off  the  weaknesses  with  which 
early  tradition  had  invested  them.  They  are  types 
of  the  perfect  character  after  which  each  subject  of 
the  theocracy  aspires,  and  their  meritorious  lives  are 
among  the  palladia  of  the  regenerate  Israel. 

It  is  true,  there  has  been  loss  as  well  as  gain. 
There  is  on  the  one  hand  a  chilliness  in  the  relation 
of  the  patriarchs  to  their  God,  and  on  the  other  an 
incomprehensibleness  in  the  character  of  these  saintly 
men,  who  strike  a  modern  reader  as  having  had  no 
moral  development.  But  this  chilliness  is  by  no 
means  indifference  ;  it  is  only  the  expression  of  feel¬ 
ing  which  is  concerned.  A  priest  is  not  a  poet ;  it 
requires  a  poet  to  bring  out  the  latent  heat  of  Jewish 
religion  in  Ezra’s  period.  And  the  incomprehen¬ 
sibleness  of  which  I  spoke  is  at  once  removed  when 
we  view  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  as  types  or  ideals 
of  the  new  Israel.  For  the  new  Israel  was  separated 
from  the  old  by  a  deep  gulf — the  gulf  of  national 
ruin,  over  which  the  labours  of  Ezekiel,  prophet  and 
lawgiver,  and  his  successors  down  to  the  time  of 
Ezra  had  constructed  a  bridge.  The  bridge  was  the 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh  79 


reinterpreted  Law,  but  this  bridge  was  only  open  to 
those  who  had  taken  to  heart  the  lessons  of  the  past. 
Such  persons  are  the  only  true  Israelites.  They 
acknowledge  that  their  old  ideals  and  their  old  con¬ 
fidences  were  false,  and  they  find  new  ones  in  the 
Law.  Religion  has  transformed  their  views  of  char¬ 
acter  ;  it  has  also  taught  them  to  trust,  not  in  chariots 
and  horses,  but  in  the  strength  vouchsafed  to  faithful 
obedience.*  The  only  defect  which  an  orthodox 
Jew  could  find  in  the  life  of  Abraham  was  that  he 
had  no  lawbook  to  study.  But  Job,  who  is,  apart 
from  some  easily  separable  details,  a  poetical  version 
of  Abraham,  shows  by  his  grand  profession  of  inno¬ 
cence  (Job  xxxi.)  that  all  the  essentials  of  the  moral 
law  were  known  to  and  observed  by  him  in  a  spirit 
of  devout  obedience.  The  want  of  poetry  in  the 
priestly  authors  of  the  lawbook  was  supplied  by 
later  writers  and  not  least  by  the  poet  of  Job. 

One  thing,  no  doubt,  Job  lost  for  a  time  which 
the  priestly  writer  makes  extremely  prominent  in 
Abraham,  and  that  is  humility.  Humility  is  the 
dominant  note  of  the  Jewish  character  as  transformed 
by  the  Law.  It  is  properly  a  relation  to  God,  and  it 
is  the  root  out  of  which  not  only  Israel’s  privileges 
but  all  its  righteousness  proceeds.  Hence  the  re- 

*  Cf,  the  saying,  “  Everything  is  in  need  of  help  (from  heaven).” 
Midrash  on  Ps.  xx. 


8o  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


markable  phenomenon  that  righteousness  and  humil¬ 
ity  in  the  post-exilic  period  are  coupled  together. 
“  Behold,  thy  king  comes  to  thee  ;  he  is  righteous  and 
victorious  ;  humble  is  he,  and  he  rides  upon  an  ass  ” 
(Zech.  ix.,  9).  And  again,  in  a  psalm,  the  wars  of 
the  Messiah  are  said  to  be  waged  “  in  behalf  of 
truth,  righteousness,  and  humility  ”  (Ps.  xlv.,  4). 

The  one  colossal  privilege  guaranteed  in  the  future 
to  the  “humble”  was  the  presence  of  God  among  His 
people,  or,  in  other  words,  the  visible  assumption  by 
Jehovah  of  His  kingly  dignity.  When  the  priestly 
code  was  originally  framed,  it  was  hoped  that  this 
“great  divine  event”  would  speedily  take  place. 
This  is  why  in  Leviticus  we  so  often  hear  the 
appeal,  “  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy  ”  (Lev.  xi.,  44, 
etc).  This,  too,  is  the  secret  of  all  those  minute 
prescriptions  which  strike  most  of  us  as  wearisome, 
but  which  to  those  who  had  taken  upon  themselves 
“  the  yoke  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ”  *  were  de¬ 
lightful.  The  too  early  dimmed  holiness  of  ancient 
Israel  arose  out  of  a  preceding  act  of  Jehovah  (the 
Exodus)  ;  in  the  future,  the  delivering  act  of  God 
would  have  to  be  preceded  by  a  thorough  sanctifica¬ 
tion  of  His  people.  This  it  was  the  endeavour  of 
Ezra  and  his  colleagues  to  secure,  and  judged  from 

*  The  phrase  illustrates  the  saying  of  Jesus,  “  Take  my  yoke  upon 
you,  .  .  .  for  my  yoke  is  easy.” 


Nehemiah,  Ezra,  and  Manasseh 


8 1 


their  own  point  of  view  they  did  their  work  in  the 
most  self-denying  and  reverent  manner. 

For  the  number  of  ancient  elements  in  the 
priestly  legislation  forbids  us,  as  I  have  said,  to  call 
it  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  a  new,  that  is  an 
entirely  original,  lawbook.  It  exhibits  the  form 
which  the  older  legislation  took  under  vastly 
altered  circumstances,  and  it  only  differs  so  widely 
in  many  respects  from  that  older  legislation  because 
of  the  great  outward  revolution  through  which 
Israel  had  passed,  and  which  was  resulting  more 
slowly  in  an  equally  great  change  in  the  inner  man. 
In  that  second  revolution  there  were  many  other 
actors  besides  Ezra  and  the  legalists.  Priests,  pro¬ 
phets,  psalmists,  and  wise  men,  besides  the  humbler 
confessors  of  common  life,  all  had  their  share  in 
bringing  about  the  transformation  of  Israel.  To 
some  of  them  it  will  be  my  privilege  to  call  the  read¬ 
er’s  attention,  but  none  of  them  deserves  such  high 
honour  as  Ezra  the  scribe,  because  without  his  law¬ 
book  the  preliminary  conditions  of  their  activity 
would  have  been  wanting.  The  Jewish  and  the 
Zoroastrian  communities  have  survived  centuries  of 
persecution  chiefly  through  their  possession  of  a 
written  religious  Law.  The  known  or  unknown 
compilers  of  that  Law  are  greater  men  than  the 

founders  of  empires. 

6 


LECTURE  III. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals;  Hindrances  to  their 
Perfect  Development. 

THE  Jewish  community  in  Judaea  had  now  been 
reconstituted.  Come  what  might,  it  had  a 
bond  stronger  than  death  linking  it  to  the  God  of 
heaven  and  earth.  True,  it  could  not  expect  much 
prosperity  in  the  immediate  future.  Ezra  and 
Nehemiah  must  have  known  that  a  breathing-time 
between  successive  afflictions  was  all  that  could  be 
hoped  for.*  But  they  knew  also  that  they  had  pro¬ 
vided  the  best  of  comforts  for  their  afflicted  people 
by  stirring  up  within  them  a  sense  of  the  true 
Israelitish  ideal.  This  ideal  was  not  the  same  which 
had  hovered  before  the  minds  of  David  and  Solo¬ 
mon.  It  was  not  in  the  first  place  material  prosperity, 
but  simply  to  be  and  to  do  as  a  community  all  that 

*  This  was  one  unfortunate  result  of  the  policy  of  Cyrus,  who 
sought  as  much  as  possible  to  respect  the  individualities  of  the  subject 
peoples.  He  meant  well,  but  he  did  not  foresee  that  these  individual¬ 
ities  would  express  themselves  in  a  succession  of  revolts  which  it 
would  be  troublesome  to  his  successors  to  quell.  Not  unfrequently 
these  revolts  took  place  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Judaea,  and  that 
small  and  poor  country  suffered  many  inconveniences  in  consequence. 

82 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


83 


a  righteous  God  approved.  A  tender-hearted,  zeal¬ 
ous,  and  enthusiastic  man  placed  his  pen  at  the 
service  of  this  ideal.  He  depicted  some  of  its  most 
beautiful  aspects  in  a  cycle  of  songs  which  some 
like-minded  editor  inserted  at  different  points  of  the 
expanded  prophecy  of  Restoration  {i.  e .,  Isaiah  xl. 
— lv.).  Those  who  would  comprehend  the  sanctified 
ambitions  of  some  of  the  best  Judaeans  in  the  age 
inaugurated  by  Ezra  should  read,  and  read  again, 
these  fine  poems. 

Let  us  begin  with  the  poem  which  is  most  con¬ 
crete  in  its  expressions,  and  is  most  obviously  occa¬ 
sioned  by  contemporary  historical  facts.  I  will  give 
the  central  portion.*  May  the  words  find  reverent 
and  sympathetic  readers. 

“  He  grew  up  as  a  sapling  before  us, 

And  as  a  sprout  from  the  root  in  a  dry  ground  ; 

He  had  no  form  nor  majesty, 

And  no  beauty  that  we  should  delight  in  him. 

“  Despised  (was  he)  and  forsaken  of  men, 

A  man  of  (many)  pains,  and  acquainted  with  sickness  ; 
Yea,  like  one  before  whom  men  hide  the  face, — 
Despised,  and  we  esteemed  him  not. 

“  But  our  sickness  (alone)  he  bore, 

And  our  pains — he  carried  them, 

*  Isaiah  liii.,  2-9.  This  and  the  following  translations  from 
Isaiah  are  almost  entirely  from  the  Polychrome  Bible ,  and  are  based 
on  a  text  which  differs  in  some  points  from  that  in  common  use. 


84  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Whilst  we  esteemed  him  stricken, 

Smitten  of  God,  and  afflicted. 

“  But  (alone)  he  was  humiliated  because  of  our  rebel¬ 
lions, 

(He  alone  was)  crushed  because  of  our  iniquities  ; 

A  chastisement,  all  for  our  peace,  was  upon  him, 

And  to  us  came  healing  through  his  stripes. 

“  All  we,  like  sheep,  had  gone  astray, 

We  had  turned  every  one  to  his  own  way, 

While  Jehovah  made  to  light  upon  him 
The  guilt  of  us  all. 

“  He  was  treated  with  rigour — but  he  resigned  himself, 
And  opened  not  his  mouth, 

Like  a  lamb  that  is  led  to  the  slaughter, 

And  like  a  sheep  that  before  her  shearers  is  dumb. 

“  Through  an  oppressive  doom  was  he  taken  away, 

And  as  for  his  fate,  who  thought  thereon, — 

That  he  had  been  cut  off  out  of  the  land  of  the  living, 
(That)  for  my  people’s  rebellion  he  had  been  stricken 
to  death  ? 

“  And  his  grave  was  appointed  with  the  rebellious, 

And  with  the  wicked  his  tomb, 

Although  he  had  done  no  injustice, 

Nor  was  there  deceit  in  his  mouth.” 

How  very  natural  was  the  question  of  the  Ethio¬ 
pian  eunuch  in  the  Acts,  “  Of  whom,  pray,  does  the 
prophet  say  this  ?  of  himself,  or  of  some  other 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


85 


man?”  (Acts  viii.,  34).  For  this  is  obviously  not  a 
purely  imaginary  description,  but  a  deeply  felt 
meditation  on  certain  melancholy  facts  well  known 
to  the  poet  and  his  readers.  Supposing  the  poem 
to  have  been  written  at  the  end  of  the  Exile,  we 
might  interpret  it  as  a  description  of  the  persecution 
and  death  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  whom  a  plausible 
tradition  declares  to  have  been  put  to  death  by  his 
unbelieving  countrymen.  It  would  seem,  however, 
that  the  age  of  Ezra  is  a  more  defensible  date,  and 
in  this  case  the  facts  to  which  the  poet  refers  will 
probably  *  be  the  martyrdoms  commemorated  in  a 
late  prophecy  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah  (Isaiah  lvii.,  1) 
in  these  words : 

“  The  righteous  perishes,  but  no  man  lays  it  to  heart  ; 

Men  of  piety  are  taken,  but  none  considers 

That  for  the  wickedness  (of  the  time)  the  righteous  is 
taken.” 

It  should  not,  I  think,  surprise  us  to  find  complaints 
like  these  in  the  years  preceding  the  arrival  of  Ezra. 
Religious  progress  among  the  Jews  was  not  obtained 
cost-free.  Most  of  the  Judaeans  in  the  first  half  of 


*  It  is  possible,  however,  that  the  traditional  martyrdom  of  Jer¬ 
emiah  is  referred  to  in  a  very  late  post-exilic  prophecy  as  a  great 
sin  of  the  community.  InZech.  xii.,  io,“  they  shall  look  (with  long¬ 
ing  regret)  to  me  whom  they  pierced,”  cannot  be  right.  It  is  just 
possible  that  “  me”  represents  the  first  letter  of  “  Jeremiah." 


86  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


the  fifth  century  were  the  children  of  those  who  had 
been  left  behind  by  Nebuchadrezzar,  and  were  by 
no  means  faithful  adherents  of  the  Deuteronomic 
Law.  Neither  rich  nor  poor  could  stand  a  very  strict 
scrutiny.  Then,  as  afterwards,  the  rich  were  specially 
prone  to  sins  of  violence  and  inhumanity,  while  the 
poor  were  as  much  addicted  to  old  and  new  super¬ 
stitions.  Exceptions,  however,  there  certainly  were. 
Malachi  calls  such  persons  “fearers  of  Jehovah," 
and  intimates  that  they  belonged  to  the  poorer 
class.  These  poor  but  pious  men  appear  to  have 
been  lightly  esteemed  by  their  neighbours,  who 
ascribed  their  unprosperous  and  even  miserable  con¬ 
dition  to  the  judgment  of  God,  while  the  tyrannical 
rich  men,  to  rid  themselves  of  these  troublesome 
nonconformists,  sometimes  accused  them  falsely  be¬ 
fore  the  judges,  and  obtained  their  condemnation 
to  death.  But  that  great  religious  thinker  and  poet 
of  the  age  of  Ezra  to  whom  I  have  referred,  looking 
back  on  these  sad  events,  saw  them  irradiated  by 
the  light  of  a  divine  purpose.  He  fused  the  different 
nameless  martyrs  and  confessors  into  a  single  colossal 
form,*  and  identified  this  ideal  personage  with  the 

*  To  call  a  people  the  servant  of  such  and  such  a  God  is  per¬ 
fectly  Semitic.  Robertson  Smith  has  quoted  Arabic  parallels,  and 
passages  like  Deut.  iv.,  19;  vi.,  13;  x.,  12,  20,  imply  the  same 
usage  among  the  Israelites,  though  it  was  not  apparently  as  common 
as  the  individualising  application  of  the  phrases. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


87 


true  people  of  Israel.  In  doing  so,  he  may  very 
likely  have  thought  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  who 
certainly  regarded  himself  and  his  disciples  as  con¬ 
jointly  the  sole  representative  of  the  true  Israel. 

Looking  back,  as  I  said,  the  poet  saw  the  full 
preciousness  of  such  a  life,  and  divined  the  fragrance 
of  its  close  in  the  eyes  of  God.  This  second  Jeremiah 
could  not  be  inferior  to  the  first  in  religious  insight, 
and  must  have  known  that  his  patiently  borne  suffer¬ 
ings  would  be  more  effectual  than  any  of  the  legal 
sacrifices  for  the  conversion  and  ultimate  glorification 
of  his  people.  In  a  converted  and  regenerate  Israel 
he  must  have  felt  that  all  that  was  noblest  in  him¬ 
self  would  live,  and  that  so  he  would  continue  to 
work  out  the  all-wise  purposes  of  the  one  true  God. 

This  wonderful  poem,  which  is  the  holy  of  holies 
in  the  temple  of  the  Old  Testament,  stands  last  in 
the  cycle  of  the  songs  on  the  Servant  of  Jehovah. 
The  three  preceding  poems  describe  the  experiences 
of  this  great  personage  prior  to  his  martyrdom,  or 
rather,  of  those  martyrs  and  confessors  who  had  the 
special  work  of  teaching  and  preaching.  All  who  in 
any  sense  witnessed  for  Jehovah  formed  part  of  the 
true  Israel  —  the  “Servant  of  Jehovah,”  but  there 
was  a  special  appropriateness  in  applying  the  latter 
title  to  those  who  were  engaged  in  pastoral  and 
missionary  work.  In  Isaiah  xlii.,  1-4,  xlix.,  1-6,  and 


88  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


L,  4-9,  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  is  represented  as 
an  earnest  and  absorbed  religious  teacher,  who  is 
sometimes  rewarded  with  success,  but  at  other  times 
meets  with  neglect  or  persecution.  His  work  for 
Israel  consists  in  “bringing  back”  the  people  to 
Jehovah’s  land,  and  the  means  by  which  he  strives 
after  this  result  is  a  skilfully  varied  eloquence,  keen 
as  a  sword  when  close  appeals  to  the  conscience  are 
needed  (xlix.,  1),  but  soft  as  milk  when  the  weary 
and  disconsolate  have  to  be  revived  (1.,  4  ;  cf.  xlii.,  3). 
This  implies  first  a  persuasive  exposition  of  the  main 
principles  of  the  Law,  and  next,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion,  a  setting  forth  of  the 
manifold  blessings  enjoyed  by  dwellers  in  the  Holy 
City.  It  was  indeed  a  great  and  noble  mission,  and 
the  probability  is  that  it  would  have  satisfied  the 
aspirations  of  the  scribe  Ezra.*  But  it  did  not 
satisfy  the  author  of  these  poems,  who  had  drunk  in 
the  spirit  of  more  catholic  teachers.  Noble  as  the 
function  was  of  re-establishing  Jehovah’s  people,  it 
was  not  quite  the  noblest,  and  so  he  represents  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah  as  comforting  himself  for  his 
slight  success  among  the  people  of  Israel  with  the 
thought  of  a  still  grander  mission. 


*It  will  be  observed  that  not  even  the  narrative  introduction  to 
Ezra’s  law-book  contains  any  hint  of  the  world-wide  mission  of  the 
descendants  of  Abraham. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


89 


“And  now,  (thus)  saith  Jehovah, 

He  who  formed  me  from  the  womb  to  be  a  Servant 
unto  him, 

That  I  might  bring  back  Jacob  unto  him, 

And  that  Israel  might  be  gathered, — 

It  is  too  light  a  thing  that  thou  shouldest  raise  up  the 
tribes  of  Jacob, 

And  restore  the  preserved  of  Irsael  ; 

So  I  set  thee  as  a  light  of  the  nations, 

That  My  deliverance  may  reach  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth." 

(Isa.  xlix.,  5,  6.) 

It  is  the  mission  to  the  other  nations  which  forms 
the  theme  of  the  very  beautiful  poem  which  opens 
the  series  of  songs  on  the  Servant.  This  time  it  is 
not  the  Servant  who  speaks,  but  Jehovah. 

“  Behold,  My  Servant,  whom  I  uphold  ; 

My  chosen,  in  whom  My  soul  delights  ; 

I  have  put  My  spirit  upon  him, 

He  will  set  forth  the  law  to  the  nations. 

“  He  will  not  cry  aloud,  nor  roar  (as  a  lion), 

Nor  cause  his  voice  to  be  heard  in  the  street. 

A  cracked  reed  he  will  not  break, 

And  a  dimly  burning  wick  he  will  not  quench. 

“  Faithfully  will  he  set  forth  the  law  ; 

He  will  not  burn  dimly  nor  despond, 

Till  he  have  set  the  law  in  the  earth, 

And  for  his  instruction  the  far  countries  wait." 

(Isa.  xlii.,  1-4.) 


90  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Can  there  be  a  finer  description  of  the  true  mis¬ 
sionary  ?  He  is  not  allowed  to  abate  one  jot  of  the 
legitimate  demands  of  truth,  which  is  no  mere  theory 
to  him,  but  a  law,  but  he  is  to  lay  the  chief  stress  on 
the  capacity  of  that  law  to  satisfy  the  deepest  wants 
of  human  nature,  bringing  strength  to  the  “cracked 
reed  ”  and  light  to  the  “  dimly  burning  wick.”  Per¬ 
suasion,  not  force,  is  to  be  the  instrument :  how  un¬ 
like  the  method  ascribed,  with  some  exaggeration, 
to  Ezra ! 

And  who  is  this  model  pastor  and  missionary? 
Is  he  a  historical  individual  who  has  escaped  mention 
in  the  hagiology  of  Judaism?  No.  In  the  first 
three  songs  the  Servant  is  still  an  imaginative  fusion 
of  many  individuals,  and  the  persons  who  are  here 
combined  into  an  organic  whole  are  the  noble 
teachers  and  preachers  of  the  Jewish  religion  in  and 
after  the  time  of  Ezra.  These  the  poet  evidently 
supposes  to  form  a  numerous  band,  for,  in  order  to 
realise  his  description,  some  will  have  to  go  to  Baby¬ 
lonia,  others  to  Egypt,  and  others  to  the  Mediter¬ 
ranean  coast-lands  on  their  apostolic  mission.  Nor 
is  there  anything  surprising  in  this.  The  prophetic 
and  missionary  view  of  J udaism  is  repeatedly  brought 
before  us  in  the  later  Scriptures  (see  Lecture  VI.), 
and  must  have  taken  its  rise  in  some  highly  gifted 
and  illumined  intellect.  I  can  hardly  think  that  the 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


9i 


Book  of  Jonah  supplies  us  with  the  right  starting, 
point.  The  idea  of  the  missionary  prophet  Jonah, 
who  is  also  a  symbol  of  Israel,  must  surely  have 
been  suggested  by  some  work  in  which  the  same 
idea  was  more  directly  expressed. 

But  is  this  really  the  idea  of  the  songs  of  which 
we  are  now  speaking?  Certainly.  These  earnest 
teachers  of  the  Law  at  home  and  abroad — who  are 
they  but  the  apostles  or  messengers  of  a  great  cen¬ 
tral  body — the  Jewish  congregation  formed  by  Ezra  ? 
It  may  be  specially  the  teachers  who  say,  “  I  have 
laboured  (as  it  seems)  for  naught,  but  my  recompense 
is  with  my  God,”  yet  it  is  the  whole  of  faithful  Israel 
which  will  share  the  reward  promised  in  Isaiah  lii., 
13-15.  Without  the  support  of  the  congregation 
what  would  the  teachers  be  able  to  effect  ?  “  All 

the  congregation,’’  as  the  Priestly  Record  says,  “are 
holy,  and  Jehovah  is  among  them  ”  (Num.  xvi.,  3), 
and  it  was  the  aspiration  of  Zion  that  all  her  sons 
might  be  “disciples  of  Jehovah  ”  (Isa.  liv.,  13),  and 
that  all  Jehovah’s  people  might  be  prophets  (Num. 
xi.,  29).  Some  might  be  called  to  a  life  of  pastoral 
activity  ;  others  might  simply  have  to  witness  to  the 
truth  by  “  doing  justly,  loving  mercy,  and  walking 
humbly  with  their  God  ”  (Mic.  vi.,  8).  Both  modes 
of  life  were  equally  fitting  and  necessary,  if  that  high 
utterance,  “  I  will  form  thee  and  make  thee  a  cov- 


92  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


enant  for  the  people,*  a  light  of  the  nations  ”  (Isa. 
xlii.,  6),  was  to  be  verified. 

The  insertion  of  these  songs  was  the  second  en¬ 
richment  which  the  original  Restoration-Prophecy 
experienced.  It  is  manifest  that  it  greatly  increased 
the  influence  of  the  prophecy.  For,  when  a  fresh 
appendix  to  this  work  in  its  expanded  form  was 
thought  of,  the  writer  at  three  points  introduced 
the  Servant  of  Jehovah  soliloquising.f  Here,  how¬ 
ever,  the  Servant  is  evidently  regarded  as  a  person¬ 
ification  of  the  company  of  prophets,  to  which,  of 
course,  the  writer  himself  belongs.  The  prophecy 
opens  with  these  inspiring  words,  which  so  finely 
express  the  prophetic  ideals  of  the  time  : 

“  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  Jehovah  is  upon  me,  because 
Jehovah  has  anointed  me,  and  has  sent  me  to  bring 
good  news  to  the  afflicted,  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted, 
to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and  opening  of  the 
eyes  to  the  blind,  to  proclaim  Jehovah’s  year  of  favour, 
and  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God,  to  comfort  all 
mourners,  to  give  them  instead  of  ashes  a  coronal,  oil 
of  joy  for  the  garment  of  mourning,  a  song  of  praise  for 
a  failing  spirit.”  (Isa.  lxi.,  1-3.) 

A  psalmist,  too,  was  kindled  to  enthusiasm  by  the 

*  “  A  covenant  for  the  people,”  because  the  Servant  of  Jehovah, 
who  so  thoroughly  knows  His  will  and  is  empowered  to  carry  it  out, 
is  like  an  embodiment  of  His  promise  or  agreement  ( berith ).  Cf. 
2  Cor.  iii. ,  2,  “  Ye  are  our  epistle.” 

f  Isa.  lxi.,  1-3  ;  lxii.,  1,  6-7.  See  Polychrome  Bibu . 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


93 


songs  on  the  Servant  of  Jehovah.  He  lived  in  one 
of  those  dark  periods  which  succeeded  the  governor¬ 
ship  of  Nehemiah,  and  which  have  left  their  impress 
on  so  many  of  the  lyrics  in  the  first  Book  of  the 
Psalter.  He  is  the  author  of  the  first  part  of  Psalm 
xxii.,  to  which,  as  it  seems,  a  conclusion  has  been  ap¬ 
pended  by  another  hand.  Into  the  poetical  and 
spiritual  beauties  of  this  fine  fragment,  I  will  not 
enter.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  they  could  never  have 
existed  but  for  that  mine  of  poetry  and  religion — 
the  Book  of  the  Second  Isaiah  in  its  expanded  form, 
and  that  chief  among  the  spiritual  beauties  is  the 
energy  with  which  the  writer  expresses  the  solidarity 
of  all  true  Israelites.  The  Servant  of  Jehovah,  as 
he  at  least  understands  the  phrase,  is  certainly  not  a 
guild  or  company  of  prophets,  but  the  whole  con¬ 
gregation  of  faithful  Jews  in  Judaea.  And  hence 
one  notable  difference  between  this  psalm-fragment 
and  Isaiah  liii.,  viz.,  that,  while  in  the  latter  poem 
the  Servant  of  Jehovah  suffers  with  full  conscious¬ 
ness  of  the  object  and  issue  of  his  troubles,  in  the 
former,  God  seems  to  have  given  over  to  death  His 
servant,  who,  nevertheless,  refuses  to  forsake  his  God. 
In  short,  Psalm  xxii.  presents  us  with  a  perfectly 
new  phase  of  Jewish  religious  thought.  Before,  the 
Exile  men  forsook  their  God  when  He  proved  unable 
or  unwilling  to  protect  them.  But  the  congregation 


94  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


of  faithful  Israelites  which  was  founded  by  Ezra  was 
able  to  trust  its  Father  and  its  God  even  in  the  dark. 

I  now  pass  on  to  another  form  of  the  Israelitish 
ideal — that  which  centres  in  the  person  of  the  Mes¬ 
siah.  The  origin  of  the  Messianic  hope  among  the 
Jews  is  unrecorded.  The  first  glowing  expressions 
of  it  are  in  Isaiah  ix.,  2-7,  and  xi.,  1-8.  Both  these 
passages  are  most  probably  post-exilic,  and  of  a  not 
very  early  date  in  the  post-exilic  period.  It  wrould 
seem  as  if  the  idea  only  gradually  took  hold  of  the 
religious  leaders.  Ezekiel  had  it  for  a  time  (see 
Ezekiel  xvii.,  22-24),  but  virtually  abandoned  it. 
For,  though  he  nominally  includes  the  figure  of  a 
second  David  in  his  later  eschatological  picture,*  yet 
he  deprives  this  David  of  all  that  in  the  olden  time 
made  the  life  of  a  king  desirable.  He  permits  him 
no  freedom  of  movement,  and  practically  condemns 
him  to  be  simply  the  foster-father  of  the  Church, 
with  the  duty  of  providing  the  external  requisites  of 
the  temple  ritual.  King  he  will  not  call  him;  the 
second  David  is  only  to  be  a  chief  or  prince.  I  sus¬ 
pect,  however,  that  Ezekiel  wrent  too  far  for  many  of 
his  readers.  The  popular  Messianic  hope  could  not 
be  put  down  by  a  single  great  teacher.  There  was 
a  deeply  rooted  belief  that  a  day  was  at  hand  when 
the  lots  of  the  oppressors  and  the  oppressed  would 

*  Ezek.  xxxiv.,  23,  24  ;  xxxvii.,  24,  25. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


95 


be  reversed.  And,  however  true  it  might  be  that  Je¬ 
hovah  was  the  Goel, — the  deliverer  of  Israel, — a  king 
who  governed,  as  well  as  reigned,  seemed  to  most  Jews 
indispensable  as  the  apex  of  society.  It  was  only  a 
few  like  Ezekiel  who  could  rise  to  the  thought  of  a 
church-nation,  of  a  people  entirely  absorbed  in  relig¬ 
ion,  whose  meat  and  drink  it  was  to  do  Jehovah’s  will. 
And  so  we  find  the  works  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah 
interspersed,  through  the  labours  of  editors  who  were 
no  mere  literary  craftsmen,  but  knew  the  people  and 
their  spiritual  cravings,  with  what  may  in  various 
degrees  of  strictness  be  called  Messianic  prophecies. 

One  of  these  produced  a  really  remarkable  effect. 
We  have  it  in  two  forms.  Neither  of  them  is  quite 
correct.  But  if  we  take  the  best  readings  from  each 
we  get  this  version  of  the  prophecy,  which,  not  with¬ 
out  due  recognition  of  what  may  be  said  on  the 
other  side,  I  incline  to  ascribe,  not  to  Jeremiah  him¬ 
self,  but  to  a  member  of  the  school  of  that  prophet : 

“  Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  Jehovah,  when  I  will 
raise  up  to  David  a  sprout  of  the  right  kind  ;  he  will 
reign  as  a  king,  and  will  deal  wisely,  and  execute  justice 
and  righteousness  in  the  land.  In  his  days  Judah  will  be 
delivered,  and  Jerusalem  will  dwell  securely  ;  and  this 
is  the  name  which  will  be  given  her — Jehovah  is  our 
righteousness.”  *  (Jer.  xxiii.,  5,  6  ;  xxxiii.,  14-16.) 

*  Comp,  the  name  of  Jerusalem  at  the  end  of  Ezekiel  (Ezek.  xlviii., 
35k 


96  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Well  did  an  editor  of  Jeremiah  describe  this  saying 
as  “that  good  word  which  Jehovah  has  spoken” 
(Jer.  xxxiii.,  14).  It  may  have  been  the  earliest 
written  word  of  the  kind,  and  certainly  it  had  in¬ 
creased  effect  through  being  ascribed  to  Jeremiah. 
Did  the  prophetic  writer  really  mean  to  attach  his 
hopes,  for  better  or  worse,  to  the  Davidic  family  ? 
or  did  both  he  and  Ezekiel  use  “  David  ”  as  a  sym¬ 
bolic  term  for  an  ideal  ruler?  The  question  has 
already  been  raised  in  connection  with  an  episode  in 
the  life  of  Nehemiah.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that 
the  prophet  would  not  have  cared  to  answer  it.  In 
fact,  the  event  alone  could  prove  who  was  the  des¬ 
tined  Messiah,  and  when  it  appeared  to  be  Jehovah’s 
will  not  to  fulfil  His  “  faithful  oath  unto  David  ” 
(Ps.  cxxxii.,  11)  in  the  person  of  a  chosen  Israelite, 
a  deep  silence  must  for  a  time  have  fallen  on  the 
Messiah’s  prophets.  The  author  of  the  songs  on  the 
Servant  of  Jehovah  refers  to  no  Messianic  king;  in¬ 
deed,  he  goes  so  far  as  to  use  expressions  conven¬ 
tionally  appropriated  to  a  Messianic  conqueror  in  a 
new,  metaphorical  sense.  He  says  that  the  Servant 
of  J ehovah,  the  true  or  spiritual  Israel,  shall  have  a  por¬ 
tion  allotted  him  with  the  great,  and  shall  divide  spoil 
with  the  strong  (Isa.  liii.,  12) ;  and  in  the  same  spirit 
the  author  of  the  first  appendix  to  the  Restoration- 
Prophecy  makes  Jehovah  say  to  the  people  of  Zion : 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


97 


“  I  will  make  an  everlasting  covenant  with  you, 

The  sure  promise  of  loving-kindness  to  David  ”  ; 

and  he  adds  that,  as  in  the  olden  time  at  the  call  of 
David,  so  now  at  the  call  of  Israel  the  peoples  shall 
hasten  to  incorporate  themselves  in  the  Israelitish 
empire  (Isa.  lv.,  3-5).  In  other  words,  the  idea  of 
personal  royalty  has  for  these  religious  thinkers  lost 
actuality ;  each  Israelite  is  a  prince,  and  the  collec¬ 
tive  church-nation  is  Jehovah’s  anointed. 

The  currents  of  thought,  however,  at  this  time 
were  changeable,  and  we  must  not  be  surprised  to 
find  the  flame  of  the  Messianic  hope  burning  up 
again.  Jeremiah  was  no  doubt  believed  to  have 
sanctioned  it,  and  the  posthumous  influence  of  this 
prophet  was  great.  It  is  to  this  period  that  we  can¬ 
not  help  assigning  some  of  the  Messianic  passages 
now  extant  in  the  Books  of  Isaiah  and  Micah.  No 
historian  of  the  phases  of  early  Jewish  religion  could 
ignore  these ;  some  of  them  at  least  are  inshrined, 
and  deserve  to  be  inshrined,  in  our  memories  and  in 
our  hearts.  We  may  not  pin  our  hopes  to  them  in 
their  literal  meaning,  but  their  vague  magnificence 
encourages  a  higher  and  a  larger  application. 

The  prophetic  poems  in  Isaiah  ix.,  2-7,  and  xi., 
1-8,  occur  at  the  close  of  two  collections  of  prophe¬ 
cies  of  Isaiah  in  which  reference  is  made  to  a  sore 
judgment  upon  Jerusalem. 


98  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


To  adapt  these  somewhat  disheartening  works  to 
post-exilic  use  an  editor  appended  two  new  prophetic 
passages  breathing  the  spirit  of  the  much-read  con¬ 
solatory  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  and  the  Second 
Isaiah.  It  appears  as  if  all  the  ancient  prophecies 
were  felt  to  require  such  adaptation.  The  literary 
value  of  the  inserted  matter  varies  considerably,  but 
the  prophecy  of  the  “  King  of  the  Four  Names  ”  *  is 
a  work  of  no  slight  significance.  Let  me  endeavour 
to  describe  it. 

It  is  a  prophecy  of  comfort,  addressed  to  those  who 
deeply  need  it.  Prophets  of  the  old  style  were  rather 
censors  than  comforters ;  their  spirit  is  expressed  in 
those  words  of  Amos,  “  Can  a  trumpet  be  blown  in  a 
city,  and  the  people  not  be  afraid  ?  ”  (Amos  iii.,  6). 
But  our  prophet  belongs  to  the  company  whose  bene¬ 
ficent  program  is  so  finely  described  in  the  words  of 
Isaiah  lxi.,  “  He  has  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken¬ 
hearted,”  and  who  prefer  the  flute  to  the  trumpet. 
Our  prophet  is  as  tender  and  sympathetic  as  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  in  those  exquisite  narratives  which 
open  the  third  of  our  Gospels.  He  knows,  of  course, 
that  Israel  has  sinned,  but  he  knows,  too,  that  the  task¬ 
master  has  exceeded  the  limits  of  his  commission. 
So  one  night,  when  neither  moon  nor  stars  are  shining, 
he  goes  forth.  He  guesses  rather  than  sees  how  early 

*  So  Prof.  G.  A.  Smith. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


99 


travellers  are  stumbling  on  the  dark  mountains,  and 
anxiously  looks  for  the  first  streaks  of  dawn.  Sud¬ 
denly  the  scene  is  transformed.  Far  more  quickly  than 
the  music  changes  in  the  chorus  of  Handel’s  Messiah 
the  gloom  disappears.  The  sun  leaps  up  from  the 
horizon  ;  “  the  people  that  walked  in  darkness  have 
seen  a  great  light.”  It  is  a  spectacle  such  as  may  be 
seen  in  Palestine  any  summer’s  morning.  But  this  time 
something  warns  the  seer  that  there  is  a  sacramental 
meaning  in  it.  It  is  a  pledge  of  the  long-looked-for 
deliverance,  an  unspoken  prophecy  from  the  Eternal. 
Henceforth  he  will  wait  in  the  patience  of  hope,  for 
the  fulfilment  “  will  surely  come,  it  will  not  tarry.” 
He  can  almost  welcome  the  deepening  shades  in  the 
last  century  of  the  Persian  rule,  for,  as  in  the  olden 
time,  it  is  at  midnight  that  the  divine  Redeemer  will 
appear.  The  deliverance  will  be  Jehovah’s,  but  the 
work  which  follows  the  deliverance  will  be  the  Mes¬ 
siah’s.  The  prophet,  if  I  should  not  rather  say  the 
poet,  remembers  the  old  prophecy  of  Immanuel, 
whom  he  takes  to  be  the  Messiah,*  and  from  a  study 
of  the  whole  collection  of  prophecies,  to  which  he  is 
providing  an  appendix,  he  concludes  that,  when  the 
oppressor  (i.  e .,  the  Persian  rule)  is  put  down,  the 
Messiah  will  be  of  an  age  to  take  upon  himself  the 
burden  of  government. 

*  On  the  probably  true  meaning  of  Immanuel,  see  Polychrome 
Bible  (English  and  Hebrew  editions). 


ioo  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


“For  a  child  has  been  born  to  us,  a  son  has  been  given 
to  us, 

And  dominion  is  laid  upon  his  shoulder  ; 

His  name  is  Counsellor  of  Wonders, 

Strong  divine  being,  father  of  glory,*  prince  of  peace. 
Dominion  is  increased,  and  to  peace  there  is  no  end, 
On  the  throne  of  David,  and  throughout  his  kingdom, 
To  establish  and  support  it  by  justice  and  righteousness 
From  henceforth  to  eternity  ;  Jehovah’s  zeal  will  per¬ 
form  this.”  (Isa.  ix.,  6-7.) 

Such  is  one  of  the  current  ideals  of  Israel’s  restor¬ 
ation.  Society  is  to  culminate  in  a  potent  and  in¬ 
vincible  but  also  peace-loving  king,  something  like 
the  Nebuchadrezzar  of  the  Babylonian  inscriptions. 
His  empire,  however,  is  to  be  much  smaller  than 
Nebuchadrezzar’s.  At  any  rate  our  poet  is  only  in¬ 
terested  in  the  restoration  of  a  kingdom  not  less  ex¬ 
tensive  than  that  ascribed  to  David.  We  find  a 
similar  expectation  in  the  post-exilic  appendix  to 
Amos  (ix.,  n-12),  but  it  is  not  expressed  with  the 
fervour  and  rhythmic  beauty  which  are  so  admirable 
in  the  poem  now  before  us. 

And  yet,  if  we  can  only  resist  the  glamour  with 
which  early  associations  have  invested  this  poem,  we 
must  confess  that  it  cannot  for  a  moment  compare 
with  the  description  of  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  in 
Isaiah  liii.  ;  its  ethical  are  of  more  significance  than 

*  I.  e glorious  father  of  the  family  of  Israel. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


IOI 


its  religious  contents.  The  author  of  the  latter  has, 
in  the  most  essential  respects,  passed  beyond  the  ideal 
of  a  personal  Messiah,  though  he  still  feels  a  tender¬ 
ness  towards  it,  and  perhaps  hopes  by  adopting  some 
spiritualised  features  from  it  to  win  acceptance  for  his 
own  nobler  vision.  It  was  a  step  which  the  greatest 
subsequent  teachers  could  not  retrace — a  step  which, 
quite  independently,  the  early  Buddhists  took,  when 
they  identified  the  lowly  Buddha  with  the  righteous 
and  mighty  king  who  lived  in  the  popular  hopes — a 
step  which  the  disciples  of  Jesus  could  not  be  pre¬ 
vented  from  taking  afresh,  and  which  the  course  of 
providential  education  has  rendered  harmless.  For, 
as  Professor  Rhys-Davids  has  well  said,  “  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Messiah  is  as  much  higher  and  more  noble  than 
the  previous  conception  of  the  first-century  Jews,  as 
the  Buddhist  King  of  Righteousness  is  higher  and 
more  noble  than  the  previous  Hindu  conception  of 
the  King  of  Kings.”  * 

The  second  of  the  two  Messianic  insertions  is  that 
which  begins  : 

“  And  a  rod  shall  come  forth  out  of  the  stock  of  Jesse, 

And  a  shoot  shall  grow  out  of  its  roots.  ”  f 

It  is  very  possibly  by  the  same  writer  as  the  first 
portrait,  which  closes,  as  you  remember,  with  a 


*  Hibbert  Lectures  for  j88i,  p.  136. 


f  Isa.  xi.,  1. 


102  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


reference  to  the  king’s  justice  and  righteousness.  It 
is  not  indeed  in  the  same  rhythm,  nor  is  it  so  suffused 
with  emotion.  But  the  new  rhythm  and  the  new 
tone  may  have  seemed  to  suit  the  new  subject  better. 
And  I  think  we  may  detect  the  same  moderation  in 
the  description  of  the  Messiah  which  we  found  in 
the  first  portrait — a  moderation  which  may  fairly  be 
ascribed  to  the  influence  of  Isaiah.  For  I  confess  I 
cannot  help  believing  that  both  these  poetical  de¬ 
scriptions  were  written  to  supplement  the  second  and 
third  prophetic  collections  of  Isaiah  respectively.* 
And  certainly  one  of  the  germs  of  both  passages  is 
to  be  found  in  the  saying  of  Isaiah,  “  And  I  will 
bring  back  thy  judges  as  at  the  first,  and  thy  coun¬ 
sellors  as  at  the  beginning ;  thereafter  thou  wilt 
be  called,  Citadel  of  righteousness,  faithful  city  ” 
(Isa.  i.,  26). 

The  whole  prophecy  or  poem  is  most  interesting. 
It  is  one  of  those  dreams  which  feed  the  world  with 
moral  energy,  and  it  reflects  honour  on  the  circles 
from  which  it  proceeded.  It  is,  however,  a  severe 
satire  on  the  kings  of  past  history,  which,  perhaps, 
accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  new  king  is  called,  not 
a  son  of  David,  but  a  son  of  Jesse.  The  person  of 

*  This  may  account  for  the  singular  fact  that  the  writer  of  Isa.  xi., 
1— S,  uses  neither  the  verb  “to  sprout’'  nor  the  noun  “sprout.” 
These  words  would  have  suggested  the  influence  of  Jer.  xxiii.,  5. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


103 


the  Messiah  is  indeed  encompassed  with  mystery. 
Somewhere  doubtless  he  exists,  all  unconscious  of 
his  future  greatness,  but  not  till  the  right  moment 
has  come  will  the  divine  gifts  qualifying  him  for  his 
office  descend  upon  him.  Then  will  that  saying  of 
a  late  prophet  be  verified — that  the  house  of  David 
will  be  “  as  God  ”  (Zech.  xii.,  8) ;  the  ideal  king  will 
be  a  divinity  not  only  in  might  but  in  wisdom.  As 
a  judge,  he  will  see  the  truth  and  the  right  at  once, 
and  his  judicial  energy  will  enable  him  to  extirpate 
the  first  shoots  of  evil.*  A  limited  ideal,  some  of 
us  may  think.  But  be  sure  that  the  poet  means 
more  than  he  says.  For  what  does  he  tell  us  next? 
Like  Virgil  f  in  the  Messianic  Eclogue,  he  sings  of 
the  wolf  dwelling  with  the  lamb,  and  the  leopard 
lying  down  with  the  kid.  %  This  is  no  mere  allegory. 
It  means  that  peace  will  one  day  prevail  throughout 
the  animal  world.  But  can  this  be  all?  To  what 
purpose  would  this  feature  in  the  description  be  un¬ 
less  it  implied  the  extinction  of  the  wolf-like  element 
in  human  nature?  Certainly  it  does  imply  this; 
and  consequently  this  Messianic  portrait  also  implies 

*  “  With  the  breath  of  his  lips  he  will  slay  the  wicked  ”  (Isa.  xi.,  4). 

f  In  the  cathedral  of  Zamora  in  Spain,  Virgil  is  represented  among 
the  Hebrew  prophets. 

\  In  a  great  Indian  epic  it  is  said  that  “weasels  sport  with  ser¬ 
pents,  and  tigers  with  deer,  through  the  power  of  saints  of  brilliant 
austerity  ”  ( Mahabharata ,  quoted  by  Muir,  Ancient  Sanscrit  Texts, 
iv.  158). 


104  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


an  organised  system  of  moral  and  religious  instruc¬ 
tion.  For  though  the  Messiah  might  put  down  the 
wicked  oppressors  by  violence,  he  could  never  induce 
a  tyrant  to  assume  the  meekness  of  a  lamb.  Jehovah 
no  doubt  is  the  great  teacher.  But  prophets,  moral¬ 
ists,  and  expounders  of  the  Law  are  His  deputies, 
and  our  far-seeing  prophetic  writer  presupposes  their 
activity  as  a  condition  of  the  ideal  future. 

But,  before  entering  farther  into  this  attractive 
subject,  we  must  examine  some  other  expressions  of 
the  hope  of  the  Messiah.  For  these  we  naturally 
turn  to  the  Psalter,  which,  being  a  congregational 
handbook,  may  be  expected  to  refer  to  such  a  popu¬ 
lar  belief.  What  we  find,  however,  is  somewhat 
surprising.  The  temple  poets  went  so  far  as  to  in¬ 
dite  psalms  which  presuppose  that  a  Davidic  king, 
strong,  warlike,  and  righteous,  is  already  seated 
on  the  throne.  Probably  the  psalmists  before  the 
Exile  had  accustomed  the  Israelites  to  the  use  of 
psalms  in  honour  of  the  reigning  king,  and  the  newer 
psalmists  would  not  abandon  the  custom,  which, 
moreover,  enabled  them  to  give  a  striking  expression 
to  the  burning  faith  in  God  which  possessed  them. 
Of  a  glorious  future  in  store  for  the  church-nation 
they  were  as  much  convinced  as  of  their  own  exist¬ 
ence.  Whenever  they  prayed  for  it,  an  inner  voice 
assured  them  that  the  answer  was  on  its  way ;  all 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals  105 

that  they  had  to  do  was  to  wait  in  hope.  This 
accounts,  not  only  for  the  abrupt  alternation  of  in¬ 
tense  supplication  and  exultant  thanksgiving  in  many 
psalms,  but  for  the  strange  addresses  to  an  as  yet 
non-existent  king.  I  must  confess  that  this  impairs 
the  claim  of  the  psalms  to  lyric  naturalness.  Any 
interpreter  approaching  the  so-called  royal  psalms 
for  the  first  time  would  suppose  them  to  refer  to  a 
contemporary  historical  king.  Appearances  are  very 
strongly  in  favour  of  this  view,  which  at  once  makes 
the  psalms  fresh  and  interesting  even  to  a  non¬ 
religious  reader,  and  yet  appearances  are  here  for 
the  most  part  illusory.  Truth  is  truth,  and  even 
when  it  makes  against  some  one  of  our  most  cherished 
desires — such,  for  instance,  as  the  development  of  a 
stronger  literary  interest  in  the  Psalter, — we  must 
accept  it  with  cordiality. 

I  venture,  therefore,  to  state  my  opinion  that  it  is 
only  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Psalter  that  we  can 
safely  hold  that  a  historical  sovereign  is  spoken  of, 
and  that  in  the  two  psalms  which  have  to  be  thus  ex¬ 
plained  (viz.,  ci.  and  cx.)  loyal  followers  have  so 
idealised  their  prince  that  a  Messianic  reference 
must  very  soon  have  been  thought  of.  The  probable 
omission  of  the  latter  part  of  Psalm  cx.  may  have 
arisen  from  a  desire  to  facilitate  such  a  reference.  I 
would  gladly  pause  for  a  few  minutes  on  each  of 


io6  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


these  psalms.  For,  however  short,  they  are  exceed¬ 
ingly  interesting  when  read  in  the  light  of  early 
Maccabaean  times,  and  tell  us  things  which  we  should 
not  have  known,  or  at  least  should  not  have  realised, 
from  the  pages  of  history.  But  their  religious  con¬ 
tents  are  meagre.  The  Second  Psalm  throws  more 
light  on  the  Messianic  belief ;  the  Fifteenth  and 
Twenty-fourth  shed  more  on  the  best  Jewish 
morality. 

We  pass  on  to  the  unexpected  phenomena  which 
await  us.  Two  of  the  strangest  Messianic  psalms 
are  the  Twentieth  and  the  Twenty-first.*  Both  re¬ 
late  to  the  Messianic  king,  who  is  supposed  to  be  on 
the  throne.  In  the  former  he  is  represented  as  just 
starting  to  fight  with  the  enemies  of  Israel.  It  is 
perhaps  his  first  campaign,  for  in  Psalm  xxi.  the 
church-nation,  in  praising  God  for  the  king’s  victory, 
represents  the  total  destruction  of  the  enemies  as 
still  future.  But  even  stranger  is  the  Forty-fifth. 
The  Messiah  (who  is  modelled  on  the  idealised  Solo¬ 
mon)  has  come  to  the  throne.  To  complete  his 
happiness  and  to  continue  his  line  he  is  about  to 
contract  a  marriage  with  a  “king’s  daughter,”  or 
rather  “royal  maiden”  (v.  13).  The  psalm  is  an 

*  Both  these  psalms  have  numerous  points  of  contact  with  un¬ 
deniable  post-exilic  psalms  (see  Cheyne,  Origin  of  the  Psalter ). 
To  interpret  them  with  reference  to  a  pre-exilic  king  is  therefore  not 
advisable. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


107 


encomium  on  the  royal  pair,  who  are  supposed  to 
have  just  met.  The  imaginative  licence  of  the  poet 
is  great.  But  he  does  not  lose  his  hold  on  the  main 
object  of  the  Messiah’s  existence,  which  is  not  mere 
private  happiness,  but  the  conferring  of  benefits  on 
the  church-nation. 

“  Gird  thy  sword  on  thy  thigh,  O  hero, 

Put  on  thy  glory  and  thy  state. 

He  leads  thee,  and  makes  thy  course  to  prosper, 

In  behalf  of  truth,  righteousness,  and  humility  ; 
Terribly  will  his  right  hand  conduct  thee, 

While  peoples  fall  prostrate  beneath  thee.”  * 

(Ps.  xlv.,  3,  4.) 

From  a  moral  point  of  view  this  deserves  special 
attention.  Here  is  a  victorious  king  whose  achieve¬ 
ments  are  not  for  himself,  but,  like  those  of  Arthur 
in  the  great  moralised  legend  of  Tennyson,  “in 
behalf  of  truth,  righteousness,  and  humility,”  just 
those  qualities,  be  it  remarked,  which  pious  Jews 
sometimes  feared  were  perishing  out  of  the  earth. 
I  think  I  ought  to  add  that  an  approach  to  this  con¬ 
ception  is  made  by  Nabopolassar,  Nebuchadrezzar, 
and  Neriglissar,  kings  of  the  later  Babylonian  Em¬ 
pire,  each  of  whom  gives  himself  the  novel  epithet 
of  “  humble.”  f 

*  The  translation  here,  as  elsewhere,  is  taken  from  the  forthcom¬ 
ing  second  edition  of  a  work  on  the  Psalms  by  the  present  writer. 

f  Schrader’s  series  of  translations  from  cuneiform  texts,  iii.,  2, 
PP-  3-  7,  77- 


io8  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Another  Messianic  psalm,  the  Seventy-second, 
which  is  in  fact  the  supplement  of  the  Forty-fifth, 
gives  just  the  same  character  to  the  ideal  king,  only 
it  does  not  draw  out  the  striking  contrast  between 
the  martial  prowess  and  the  inward  humility  of  the 
king — a  contrast  which,  as  you  will  remember,  a 
famous  Messianic  prophecy  in  the  Book  of  Zecha- 
riah  (ix.,  9)  puts  very  forcibly.  What  the  Seventy- 
second  Psalm  says  (vv.  13,  14)  is  this: 

“  He  feels  for  the  wretched  and  needy, 

The  souls  of  the  needy  he  delivers  ; 

From  violence  he  redeems  their  souls, 

Yea,  costly  is  their  blood  in  his  sight"  ; 

i.  e .,  not  as  a  matter  of  mere  duty,  but  from  sympa¬ 
thy,  he  places  his  strong  arm  at  the  service  of  those 
who  are  in  need.  Instead  of  despising  the  poor,  he 
regards  their  blood  as  something  too  precious  to  be 
squandered. 

I  must  not  linger  on  this  interesting  poem.  But  I 
may  point  out  the  strangeness  of  the  opening  coup¬ 
let,  where  the  Messiah  is  represented  as  not  only  a 
king  but  a  “  king’s  son."  This  agrees  with  a  passage 
in  Psalm  xlv.  in  which  the  “  fathers,"  i.  e .,  the  royal 
fathers,  of  the  Messiah  are  spoken  of.  The  psalmists 
leap  over  the  interval  between  the  last  king  of  Judah 
and  the  accession  of  the  Messiah,  and  represent  the 
latter  as  the  son  of  all  the  kings  who  have  gone  before. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


109 


The  truth  is  that  the  Messiah  is  but  a  poetic  em¬ 
bodiment  of  the  Davidic  royalty,  and  the  Davidic 
royalty,  in  the  absence  of  any  real  political  interest, 
is  but  a  representative  of  the  Jewish  people.*  In 
the  ideal  democracy,  each  citizen  is  a  king;  in  the 
idealised  Jewish  state,  each  true  servant  of  Jehovah 
is  as  holy  as  the  Messiah.  This  accounts  for  the 
striking  fact  that  in  the  Eighty-ninth  Psalm  the 
people  of  Israel  actually  assumes  the  title  of  Jeho¬ 
vah’s  anointed. f  Let  me  now  direct  your  attention 
to  this  psalm,  or  at  least  to  verses  19-51,  which  seem 
originally  to  have  had  a  separate  existence.  This 
passage  begins  with  a  poetic  version  of  a  prophecy 
which  attracted  much  attention  in  the  Persian  pe¬ 
riod — the  “  prophecy  of  Nathan  ”  in  2  Samuel  vii. : 

“  My  covenant  I  will  not  profane, 

Nor  alter  that  which  has  passed  My  lips  ; 

Once  for  all  have  I  sworn  by  My  holiness, 

I  will  never  be  faithless  to  David. 

“  His  offspring  shall  endure  for  ever, 

And  his  throne  as  the  sun  before  Me  ; 

*  Here  we  are  constrained  to  differ  from  R.  H.  Hutton,  where  he 
says  so  finely  ( Essays ,  i.,  274)  that  the  Jewish  prophets  began  to  learn 
that  “there  must  be,  between  the  Father  and  human  nature,  some 
being  lowly  as  the  latter,  perfect  as  the  former,  whose  kingliness 
would  not  consist  in  mere  righteous  power,  but  in  righteous  humility.” 
Righteous  humility  and  nearness  to  God  are  as  characteristic  of  the 
people  as  of  its  ideal  ruler  and  representative. 

f  Cf.  the  same  phenomenon  in  Ps.  xxviii.,  7,  lxxxiv.,  10  ;  Hab.  iii., 
13. 


no  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


It  shall  be  established  for  ever,  as  the  moon, 

(Yea,)  be  steadfast  as  the  meeting-place  in  the  sky.” 

The  “  meeting-place  in  the  sky  ”  (if  the  words  are 
rightly  so  read)  is  the  “  mountain  of  assembly,” 
where,  according  to  an  old  myth,  the  “sons  of  God  ” 
(or  supernatural  beings)  spoken  of  in  Job  met  to¬ 
gether  ;  whose  top  reached  to  the  sky,  and  whose 
foundation  was  in  the  ocean  which  encompasses  the 
earth.  What  better  image  of  security  could  there 
be?*  But  the  psalmist,  after  quoting  the  prophecy, 
falls  into  deep  depression.  He  complains  that  the 
prophetic  promise  is  in  violent  contrast  to  facts.  The 
royalty  of  David’s  house  is  at  an  end,  and  the  people 
of  Israel,  here  identified  with  the  Messiah,  is  treated 
with  worse  than  contempt  by  its  neighbours. 

The  Eighteenth  Psalm  is  not  less  paradoxical.  I 
am  afraid  that  it  has  sometimes  been  admired  on 
wrong  grounds.  It  will  not  do  to  compare  it  to  the 
splendid  triumphal  ode  addressed  to  Thutmes  III., 
King  of  Egypt,  the  language  of  which  is  as  vivid  and 
spontaneous  as  that  of  the  Eighteenth  Psalm  is  pale 
and  artificial.  To  appreciate  the  latter  we  must  read 
it  as  the  expression  of  that  “  other-worldly  ”  temper 
which  no  people  has  ever  possessed  as  fully  as  the 
Jewish.  From  the  very  first  the  psalmist  transports 

*  Precisely  such  an  image  is  used  by  Ezekiel  (xxviii.,  13,  14)  to  ex¬ 
press  the  self-confidence  of  the  king  of  Tyre. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


1 1 1 


us  to  the  Messianic  age.  The  judgment  on  the  na¬ 
tions  has  taken  place*;  Israel,  with  a  Davidic  king 
at  its  head,  has  been  raised  to  the  height  of  pros¬ 
perity.  It  is  this  Davidic  king  who  speaks  in  the 
psalm.  He  has  no  private  ambitions,  and  can  there¬ 
fore  interpret  the  thoughts  of  the  community;  in¬ 
deed,  the  psalmist  sometimes  forgets  the  king,  and 
speaks  for  the  personified  people.f  All  this  is 
psychologically  most  strange.  If  it  were  not  sus¬ 
ceptible  of  the  strictest  proof,  we  should  never  have 
believed  it  possible. 

A  similar  explanation  must  be  given  of  the  Second 
Psalm.  Like  the  Eighteenth  it  is  an  attempt  at 
a  vivid  realisation  of  the  more  strictly  Messianic 
prophecies.  In  the  Eighteenth  Psalm,  the  Messianic 
king  speaks  as  if  he  were  on  the  throne,  and,  under 
Jehovah,  controlled  the  destinies  of  the  nations.  In 
the  Second,  he  speaks  as  if  the  confederate  kings 
were  planning  a  revolt  from  Jehovah  and  His 
anointed.  There  is  less  human  nature  in  the  Mes¬ 
siah  who  speaks  here  than  in  the  portrait  of  him  in 
the  twin  psalm.  There,  the  work  given  him  to  do 
made  a  strong  demand  on  his  energy  ;  he  needed  (as 
all  the  great  religious  Oriental  conquerors  felt  that 

*  Ps.  xviii.,  4-19;  cf.  xcvii.,  1-6. 

f  Hence  in  Ps.  cxliv.,  i-n,  a  highly  imitative  work,  the  words  of 
Ps.  xviii.  are  plainly  adopted  by  the  personified  community,  which 
frankly  distinguishes  itself  from  David. 


1 12  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


they  needed)  a  power  which  came  from  above  to  make 
the  effort.  Here,  he  has  but  to  lift  his  sceptre  of  iron 
to  shiver  the  nations  like  potters’  ware.  Morally  the 
psalmist  stands  higher  than  his  hero.  He  does  not 
wish  evil  to  the  kings  of  the  earth.  The  Messianic 
king  cannot  take  steps  against  them  till  Jehovah’s 
anger  is  kindled.  Till  then  there  is  time  for  the 
kings  to  repent,  and  to  renew  their  homage. 

“  Now  therefore,  ye  kings,  show  your  wisdom  ; 

Take  warning,  ye  judges  of  the  earth. 

Serve  Jehovah  with  fear, 

And  do  homage  with  trembling, 

*  Lest  He  be  angry,  and  your  course  end  in  ruin. 

For  soon  His  anger  kindles  ; 

Happy  all  those  that  take  refuge  in  Him.” 

(Ps.  ii.,  10-12.) 

One  reflection,  I  am  afraid,  will  be  forced  upon 
you — that,  if  it  is  a  benefit  to  the  nations  to  be 
brought  under  the  yoke  of  the  Messiah,  the  benefit 
is  one  which  requires  of  them  the  most  painful  sacri¬ 
fices.  The  sternness  of  the  foreign  policy  ascribed 
to  the  Messiah  cannot,  as  we  should  say,  be  morally 
justified  except  on  the  theory  that  the  nations  are 

*  Here  the  ordinary  versions  insert  “  Kiss  the  Son,”  which,  how¬ 
ever,  is  due  to  a  misunderstanding.  “Kiss,”  i.  e .,  “do  homage,” 
should  certainly  be  substituted  for  “Rejoice”  (see  the  common 
version)  in  the  preceding  line  ;  “  the  Son  ”  is  a  supposed  translation 
of  what  is  really  a  fragment  of  the  word  rendered  “  with  trembling.” 
(See  the  writer’s  Book  of  Psalms,  2d  ed.) 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals  113 

thoroughly  bad,  and  that  their  continued  independ¬ 
ence  endangers  the  highest  human  ideals.  This  was, 
in  fact,  the  belief  of  pious  Jews  whenever  there 
was  much  friction  between  them  and  their  rulers, 
and  it  expressed  itself  more  particularly  in  the  lyrics 
which  they  chanted  in  the  temple.  We  shall  see, 
however,  that  the  psalmists  do  not  always  speak  of 
the  nations  outside  in  the  same  hard  tone.  Nor  do 
the  prophetic  writers.  But  we  must,  I  think,  earn  the 
right  to  luxuriate  in  the  gentler  passages  by  first  realis¬ 
ing,  under  the  guidance  of  the  psalmists,  the  terrible 
state  of  tension  in  which  the  Jews  too  often  lived. 

I  am  aware  that  an  eminent  Jewish  writer  (Isidore 
Loeb)  has  denied  the  objective  accuracy  of  the 
psalmists;  he  regards  the  Psalter  as  merely  a  picture 
of  peculiar  and  abnormal  states  of  mind.  According 
to  him,  the  psalmists  are  idealistic  poets,  who  have 
discovered  the  art  of  turning  their  misery  to  the 
best  account,  and  who  find  the  taste  of  sorrow  not 
wholly  bitter.  They  are  the  dupes  and  sports  of 
their  imagination  ;  they  live  in  dreams,  and  have  no 
sentiment  of  reality.  There  is  some  truth  in  this, 
but  not  very  much.  Like  the  prophets,  the  psalm¬ 
ists  have  a  tendency  to  exaggeration.  Their  feel¬ 
ings  are  so  intense  that  they  cannot  help  laying  on 
the  colours  too  thickly.  They  love  the  ideals  com¬ 
mitted  to  them  so  well  that  they  cannot  be  quite 
8 


1 14  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


fair  to  those  who  would  trample  those  ideals  in  the 
dust.  And  there  is  certainly  a  sweetness  in  their 
sufferings  which  an  outsider  cannot  understand ; 
for,  the  more  miserable  they  are,  the  more  they 
realise  that  one  stronger  than  the  strong  cares  for 
them.  Nor  are  they  altogether  without  some  faint 
idea  of  the  consolations  of  art,  though  the  art  may 
be  of  a  kind  which  baffles  our  comprehension — I 
mean  the  music  and  singing  of  the  temple.  Cer¬ 
tainly  their  one  great  pleasure  is  singing  the  praises 
of  Jehovah.  The  mere  recollection  of  this  is  a  com¬ 
fort  to  them  in  exile.  One  of  the  psalmists,  when 
far  from  Zion,  finely  says : 

"  This  do  I  call  to  mind,  pouring  out  the  while  my  lan¬ 
guid  soul, 

How  I  moved  in  converse  with  the  noble  to  the  house 
of  God, 

Amid  the  sound  of  praiseful  song,  the  music  of  those 
who  kept  the  feast.”  (Ps.  xlii.,  4.) 

It  may  further  be  admitted  that  the  pious  were  to 
some  extent  the  authors  of  their  own  misery.  They 
had  no  political  insight,  and  were  incapable  of  prac¬ 
tical  compromise  ;  they  had  also  an  absolute  distaste 
for  commerce,  and  were  strangers  to  the  arts  of  the 
market-place.  The  result  was  that  both  politically 
and  commercially  they  were  pushed  to  the  wall,  not 
only  by  foreigners  but  by  men  of  their  own  race. 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals  1 1 5 

It  was  this  indeed  which  made  their  feelings  so  bit¬ 
ter — that  men  who  called  themselves  Jews  should 
associate  with  the  heathen  and  adopt  their  worldly 
principles — that  all  the  zeal  and  energy  of  Nehemiah 
and  Ezra  should  have  failed  to  realise  the  noble 
ideal  of  the  church-nation.  That  the  non-Jewish 
and  half- Jewish  populations  of  Palestine  should 
show  irritation  at  the  religious  assumptions  of  the 
Jews,  was  only  to  be  expected  ;  that  the  Persian 
rulers  should  grow  tired  of  the  friendly  indulgence 
of  Cyrus  and  Darius  was  at  any  rate  not  quite  unin¬ 
telligible  ;  but  that  members  of  the  family  of  Israel 
should  despise  the  covenant  of  their  God,  was  more 
than  pious  Jews  could  bear.  Against  all  these  classes 
— lukewarm  or  faithless  Jews,  who  cared  only  for 
their  own  profit,  and  scrupled  not  to  cheat  and  impov¬ 
erish  their  brethren,  irritated  and  malicious  neigh¬ 
bours,  heartless  and  tyrannical  rulers, — the  psalmists 
hurled  the  most  violent  epithets, — “wicked,”  “im¬ 
pious,”  “doers  of  evil,”  “men  of  blood,”  “speakers 
of  lies,”  “  proud,”  “  braggarts,”  “  robbers,”  “  scorn- 
ers,”  “enemies  to  Jehovah,”  “rebels,”  “causeless 
enemies,”  “  those  that  return  evil  for  good.”  From 
a  religious  and  moral  point  of  view  they  could 
see  no  difference  between  them.  Neither  faithless 
Jew  nor  tyrannical  heathen  ruler  believes  in  the  di¬ 
vine  government  of  the  world.  He  forgets  God, 


1 1 6  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


does  not  invoke  Him,  does  not  fear  Him  (Ps.  ix.,  18  ; 
xiv.,  4;  xxxvi.,  2;  L,  22);  he  thinks,  though  he  does 
not  say,  “There  is  no  God”  (Ps.  xiv.,  1;  cf.x.,  4, 
xxxvi.,  1).  He  can  use  the  most  cutting  words  to 
those  who  cannot  venture  to  retaliate,  for  “  who 
hears  ?  ”  (Ps.  lix.,  7).  He  can  commit  the  greatest 
outrages,  for  “Jehovah  does  not  see”  (Ps.  x.,  11, 
xciv.,  7).  He  may  indeed  (if  nominally  a  Jew)  use 
the  conventional  religious  forms,  “bowing  his  head 
like  a  bulrush  ”  (Isa.  lviii.,  5)  at  the  public  litanies. 
But  he  does  so  in  order  to  circumvent  God — so  in¬ 
credibly  mean,  as  the  psalmist  thinks,  is  his  concep¬ 
tion  of  God.  He  has,  in  fact,  adapted  his  religious 
views  to  his  practical  requirements ;  he  thinks  that 
God  is  even  such  an  one  as  himself  (Ps.  1.,  21);  he 
has  a  delusive  oracle  in  his  heart  which  tells  him 
just  what  he  wishes  to  hear.  This  false  god  is  the 
sin  within  him,  which  has  taken  the  place  of  that 
divine  instructor  who  dwells  in  each  member  of  the 
faithful  community.  Listen  to  the  psalmist: 

“  [That  God  is  not,  is]  the  divine  oracle  of  Sin — 

To  the  wicked  man  within  his  heart  ; 

No  dread  of  God  is  before  his  eyes. 

For  he  flatters  Jehovah  in  subtlety — 

Jehovah  will  not  discover  the  wickedness  of  his  tongue. 
The  words  of  his  mouth  are  mischief  and  guile  ; 

He  has  left  off  acting  wisely  and  well.'’ 

(Ps.  xxxvi.,  1-3.) 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


ii  7 


Strangely  enough,  a  similar  portrait  is  given  of  the 
righteous  Job  by  the  aged  and  narrow-minded 
Eliphaz : 

“  Yea,  thou  destroyest  religion, 

And  dost  dismiss  devout  meditation. 

For  thine  iniquity  teaches  thy  mouth, 

And  thou  choosest  the  tongue  of  the  subtle.”  * 

(Job  xv.,  4,  5.) 

The  only  difference  is  that  Job,  according  to  Eli¬ 
phaz,  superadds  to  his  wicked  deeds  a  theoretical 
justification  of  his  impiety,  whereas  the  wicked  men 
of  the  Psalms  are  not  represented  as  at  all  intellec¬ 
tual.  It  is  only  in  the  First  Psalm — the  Psalm  of 
the  Two  Ways — that  we  hear  of  a  class  of  men 
called  “scoffers,”  and  this  shows  us  that  we  must 
not  look  to  the  Psalms  for  a  complete  picture  of 
Jewish  society. 

But  what  are  the  outrages  of  which  the  party  of 
the  wicked  men  has  been  guilty  ?  They  consist 
partly  in  the  use  of  offensive  expressions  towards 
Israel  and  Israel’s  God,  alternating  with  hypocritical 
professions  of  friendship,  partly  in  slanderous  mis¬ 
representations  of  the  righteous,  addressed  perhaps 
to  the  judge  or  to  the  Persian  or  Greek  governor, 
partly  in  gross  unfairness  to  the  poor  righteous 
in  business  transactions,  partly  in  acts  of  physical 

*  Cf.  Lecture  IV. 


1 1 8  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


violence.  I  will  quote  some  passages  from  the 
Psalms  which  bear  out  this  statement. 

First,  as  to  the  speeches  of  the  wicked  men.  As 
evidence  I  will  quote  two  very  sad  passages.  The 
tone  is  that  of  many  a  persecuted  Jew  in  the  long 
middle  age  : 

“  Pity  us,  Jehovah,  oh,  pity  us  ! 

For  too  long  have  we  been  sated  with  contempt  ; 
Yea,  too  long  has  our  soul  been  sated 
With  the  mockery  of  the  careless, 

The  contempt  of  the  proud." 

(Ps.  cxxiii.,  3,  4.) 

And  now  for  the  companion  passage  : 

“  Insult  has  broken  my  heart  ; 

Very  grievous  is  the  wound  of  my  soul  ; 

I  looked  for  a  sympathiser,  but  there  was  none, 
And  for  comforters,  but  I  found  none. 

They  gave  me  gall  as  my  food, 

And  in  my  thirst  they  gave  me  vinegar  to  drink." 

(Ps.  lxix.,  20,  21.) 

By  the  “  gall  ”  and  the  “  vinegar  ”  the  poet  means 
bitter,  scornful  words.  The  speaker  is  faithful  Israel, 
who  is  insulted  because  he  is  the  “  Servant  of  Jeho¬ 
vah.”  Hence  in  the  same  psalm  we  read  :  “  The 
insults  of  those  who  insulted  thee  fell  upon  me.” 
It  appears  from  the  context  that  the  mockery  of 
the  enemies  was  called  forth  partly  by  the  mis¬ 
erable  condition  of  the  faithful  community,  which 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals  119 

seemed  at  its  last  gasp,  chiefly  by  the  forms  and 
ceremonies  of  the  Jewish  religion.  It  is  true  the 
only  form  expressly  mentioned  is  fasting.*  This 
appears  to  be  singled  out  here  because  it  struck  the 
observation  of  a  bystander  more  than  church  lita¬ 
nies  ;  it  was  in  fact  the  climax  of  the  attempts  of  the 
faithful  to  work  upon  their  God.  Elsewhere,  how¬ 
ever,  we  learn  that  the  prayers  of  believers  did  not 
escape  ridicule.  So  futile  did  these  prayers  appear, 
that  the  enemies  could  plausibly  ask,  “  Where  is  thy 
God?"  (Ps.  xlii.,  3,  4),  and  the  wicked  man  could 
even  venture  to  “  curse  at  the  attainment  of  his 
desire,”  and  the  “  robber”  to  “contemn  Jehovah  ” 
(Ps.  x.,  3).  The  favourite  phrases  of  believers  seem 
also  to  have  been  ridiculed  ;  at  least  there  is  one 
most  touching  passage  which  gives  an  imaginary 
speech  of  the  persecutors,  and  seems  to  imply  this. 
One  word  or  two  in  my  reading  of  it  is  open  to  dis¬ 
pute,  viz.,  in  the  third  line,  where  I  find  a  reference 
to  the  favourite  title  of  God  in  the  Second  Isaiah’s 
Prophecy  of  Restoration.  But  the  received  text 
cannot,  in  my  opinion,  be  defended. 

“  All  that  see  me  laugh  me  to  scorn  ; 

They  open  wide  the  lips  ;  they  shake  the  head. 

*  So  far  as  we  can  see,  the  forms  most  valued  by  the  pious  Jews  of 
this  period  were  the  singing  of  praise,  the  recital  of  prayers,  and  fast¬ 
ing.  Sabbath  and  Circumcision  are  nowhere  mentioned  in  the  Psalms. 


120  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


(Forsooth,)  his  redeemer  is  Jehovah  ;  (then)  let  Jeho¬ 
vah  rescue  him  ! 

Let  Jehovah  deliver  him,  seeing  He  has  such  delight  in 
him  !” 

(Ps.  xxii.,  7,  8.) 

Sometimes,  however,  the  persecuted  righteous  stand 
at  bay,  and  meet  their  enemies  with  the  poor  man’s 
weapon  of  prayer,  an  effectual,  fervent  prayer,  which 
is  confident  of  an  answer. 

“  Stilled  be  those  lying  lips 
Which  speak  against  the  righteous 

Proud  words  in  haughtiness  and  scorn." 

(Ps.  xxxi.,  18.) 

The  scorn  of  the  wicked  rich  for  the  righteous 
poor  shows  itself  in  one  rather  singular  way.  It 
seems  as  if  the  wicked  preferred  to  use  mean  and 
disgraceful  methods  whenever  they  could.  They 
sought  to  lull  the  righteous  into  a  false  security  by 
professing  to  be  their  friends.  Treachery  plays  a 
large  part  in  the  story  of  the  Maccabees,  and  there  is 
only  too  much  reason  to  believe  that  the  dread  of 
it  always  lay  in  the  background  of  the  Jewish  mind. 
One  psalmist  says  : 

“  There  is  nothing  trustworthy  in  their  speech, 
Their  inward  aim  is  ruin  ; 

An  open  grave  is  their  throat, 

Though  flattery  glides  from  their  tongue." 

(Ps.  v.,  9.) 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


I  2  I 


Another  characterises  the  wicked  man  thus : 

“  His  face  is  smoother  than  butter, 

But  war  is  in  his  heart  ; 

His  words  are  softer  than  oil, 

And  yet  are  they  javelins.” 

(Ps.  lv.,  21.) 

Next,  as  to  the  slander  which  forms  another  article 
in  the  indictment  of  the  wicked.  These  are  pious 
Israel’s  ejaculations : 

"  Give  me  not  over  to  the  greed  of  my  foes  ! 

For  against  me  false  witnesses  have  risen  up, 

And  they  puff  out  (words  of)  injustice.” 

(Ps.  xxvii.,  12.) 

And  again  : 

“Witnesses  who  serve  injustice  arise, 

And  with  tricks  they  despoil  me.” 

(Ps.  XXXV.,  II.) 

Here  we  have  a  reference  to  a  common  practice  of 
avaricious  and  powerful  men — to  accuse  innocent 
persons  of  some  crime,  such  as  theft,  with  the  view 
of  obtaining  double  restitution.  The  judges  would 
of  course  share  the  plunder  ( cf .  Mic.  iii.,  3).  Or 
the  accusation  might  be  that  of  treason.  How  plaus¬ 
ible  such  a  charge  might  be  in  the  dark  years  at  the 
close  of  the  Persian  rule,  and  even  at  a  later  time, 
need  not  be  said.  Well  might  the  church-nation 
pray, 


122 


Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


“  Deliver  my  soul,  Jehovah,  from  the  lying  lip,  from 
the  deceitful  tongue  ”  (Ps.  cxx.,  2), — 

and  then,  in  the  words  of  the  fine  psalm  at  the  end 
of  the  Book  of  Ecclesiasticus,  give  thanks  to  her 
Lord  and  King  for  deliverance  “  from  the  lips  that 
forge  lies,”  because  “  by  an  accusation  to  the  king 
from  an  unrighteous  tongue  her  soul  had  drawn  nigh 
unto  death  ”  (Ecclus.  li.,  2-6). 

Under  these  circumstances  normal  business  rela¬ 
tions  between  the  two  parties  were  impossible.  Even 
if  the  psalmists  exaggerate  when  they  deny  their 
opponents  the  least  vestige  of  honesty  (Ps.  xii.,  1), 
yet  this  very  exaggeration  bears  witness  to  a  social 
injustice  which  is  inconsistent  with  commerce.*  The 
petty  details  of  commercial  unfairness  are  of  course 
not  given.  But  we  are  told  that  “  extortion  and  de¬ 
ceit  depart  not  from  the  market-place”  (Ps.  lv.,  11). 
No  doubt  this  extortion  was  largely  connected  with 
money-lending.  To  lend  money  gratuitously  to 
faithful  Jews  was  meritorious  (Ps.  xxxvii.,  26;  cxii., 
5),  while  to  require  usury  was  as  bad  as  taking  a 
bribe  against  the  innocent  (Ps.  xv.,  5). 

That  acts  of  personal  violence  were  also  committed 
by  the  Jewish  oppressors,  is  not  quite  so  easy  to 
prove. 

*  Even  in  Ben  Sira’s  time  the  relation  of  a  rich  man  to  a  poor  man 
was  like  that  of  a  wolf  to  a  lamb  (Ecclus.  xiii.,  17-19). 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


123 


The  wicked  of  Jewish  and  those  of  heathen  origin 
are  not  always  easy  to  distinguish.  Probably  native 
officials  were  employed  under  the  foreign  governors, 
who  misused  their  power,  and  became  even  more 
hated  than  the  foreigners.  In  Proverbs  xxviii.,  3  (cf. 
v.,  15)  we  read  that  “a  wicked  grandee  [or  tyrant] 
who  oppresses  the  mean  folk  is  like  a  sweeping  rain 
which  leaves  no  food,”  and  in  Psalm  Hi.,  1,  a  psalm¬ 
ist  thus  apostrophises  an  unnamed  offender: 

“  Why  gloriest  thou  in  mischief,  thou  grandee  ! 

[And  showest  insolence]  to  the  pious  unceasingly  ?  ” 

In  both  cases  the  most  natural  interpretation  is 
that  a  native  tyrant  is  meant.  Still  more  certain  is 
the  reference  in  the  next  passage  that  I  shall  quote. 
It  shows  that  there  were  immoral  men,  Jews  in  name 
but  not  in  soul,  who  did  not  scruple  to  shed  blood 
when  their  wishes  could  only  so  be  gratified.  The 
more  pious  section  of  the  Jewish  people  prays  to 
God  thus : 

“  Take  not  away  my  soul  with  sinners, 

Nor  my  life  with  men  of  blood, 

On  whose  hands  are  (the  marks  of)  crimes, 

And  their  right  hands  are  full  of  bribes.” 

(Ps.  xxvi.,  9,  10.) 

These  men,  as  it  appears,  belonged  to  an  association. 
They  had  common  principles  and  interests,  and  there- 


124  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


fore  formed  a  party.  So  that,  when  pious  Israel  per¬ 
sonified  says,  in  the  same  psalm  (ver.  5), 

“  I  hate  the  congregation  of  evil  doers, 

And  will  not  sit  in  the  conclave  of  the  wicked,” 

he  means  that  he  recognises  the  utter  inconsistency 
of  his  own  principles  with  those  of  the  opposite  party. 
He  hates  them,  he  says  elsewhere  (Ps.  cxxxix.,  21), 
because  they  hate  and  oppose  Jehovah,  and  it  is  the 
hardest  problem  that  he  knows  to  reconcile  their  con¬ 
tinued  existence  with  the  divine  justice. 

You  will  see  that  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  Psalter 
is  a  historical  document  of  a  high  order — that  I  am 
in  no  doubt  either  as  to  its  date,  or  as  to  the  credi¬ 
bility  of  its  expressed  or  implied  statements,  with 
the  qualifications  which  I  have  mentioned.  I  hold 
the  post-exilic  date  of  every  part  of  the  Psalms  to 
have  been  abundantly  proved,  and  the  credibility  of 
their  statements  seems  to  me  to  be  confirmed  by  the 
historical  and  prophetical  records  already  referred  to. 
That  there  was  a  strong  tension  of  feeling  among 
pious  Jews  is  plain,  and  this  quite  accounts  for  the 
vehement  language  of  the  psalmists,  who  were  truth¬ 
ful  men,  even  if  naturally  prone,  like  the  prophets 
before  them,  to  some  exaggeration. 

It  would,  however,  be  unsafe  to  assume  that  the 
division  of  the  Jews  into  the  wicked  rich  and  the 
righteous  poor,  which  pervades  so  much  of  the  later 


Jewish  Religious  Ideals 


125 


literature,  is  an  exhaustive  classification.  The  right¬ 
eous  poor  are  collectively  the  self-sacrificing  Servant 
of  Jehovah  described  in  Isaiah  liii.  They  are  the 
inner  circle,  the  few  really  fine  grapes  on  the  cluster. 
Side  by  side  with  them — observers  of  the  law  like 
themselves,  only  not  so  strict ;  frequenters  of  the 
temple,  only  not  so  constant — are  the  great  majority 
of  those  who  call  upon  the  name  of  Jehovah.  They 
are  not  perfect  in  humility  or  in  obedience,  and  are 
liable  to  be  carried  away  by  the  evil  example  of  the 
wicked.  They  need  the  guidance  and  instruction  of 
those  who  are  firmer  in  faith,  and  it  is  to  them  that 
the  expounders  of  the  law,  the  writers  of  prophecies, 
and  those  wise  moral  teachers,  some  of  whom  have 
composed  psalms  and  others  pointed  sayings  and 
eloquent  discourses,  devote  their  ceaseless  energies. 
It  is  for  their  use  that  the  noble  prayer  was  written : 

“  Search  me  out,  O  God,  and  know  my  heart, 

Try  me,  and  know  my  thoughts, 

And  see  if  there  be  any  practice  of  covetousness  in  me, 

And  lead  me  in  the  ancient  road  ”  *  ; 

and  it  was  of  the  teachers  of  righteousness  (whom  I 
shall  next  describe)  that  the  author  of  Daniel  prophe¬ 
sied  that  “  the  teachers  should  shine  like  the  splen¬ 
dour  of  the  firmament,  and  they  that  turn  the  many  to 
righteousness  like  the  stars  for  ever  and  ever”  (Dan. 
xii.,  3). 

*Ps.  cxxxix.,  24  ;  the  speaker  in  vv.  19-24  is  personified  Israel. 


LECTURE  IV. 

Jewish  Wisdom;  its  Meaning,  Object,  and 

Varieties. 


IN  the  remaining  portion  of  this  historical  sketch 
I  shall  endeavour  to  complete  the  proof  of  the 
rich  variety  of  life  in  early  Judaism.  And  I  shall 
first  of  all  ask  you  to  study  with  me  the  great  edu¬ 
cational  movement  of  the  period,  out  of  which  pro¬ 
ceeded  the  singular  phenomenon  called  Jewish 
Wisdom.  Its  origin  is  a  matter  of  conjecture. 
Most  probably,  however,  it  originated  in  the  con¬ 
sciousness  that,  if  not  only  individuals  but  whole 
classes  of  society  were  to  become  righteous  (and  this 
was  known  to  be  the  condition  of  the  divine  favour), 
there  was  a  need  of  some  new  and  attractive  pre¬ 
sentation  of  moral  and  religious  truth.  The  ideal  of 
many  of  the  noblest  minds  was  that  expressed  in 
the  opening  of  the  First  Psalm  : 


“  Happy  is  the  man  who  delights  in  the  fear  *  of  Jehovah, 
And  meditates  on  His  law  day  and  night”  (Ps.  i.,  2). 


*  Adopting  a  probable  correction. 
126 


Jewish  Wisdom 


127 


But  it  must  soon  have  become  evident  that  there 
was  a  large  number  to  whom  this  description  would 
never  apply,  because  of  the  many  difficulties  in  the 
volume  of  Scripture,  at  which  they  were  sure  to 
stumble.*  Hence  the  idea  appears  to  have  arisen, 
that  if  that  volume  were  studied  by  wise  men  who 
were  in  touch  with  the  people,  it  might  be  possible 
to  make  an  abstract  of  such  religious  truths  as  even 
men  of  the  world  (if  the  phrase  may  be  used)  could 
recognise  and  live  by.  If  this  view  be  sound,  we  may 
naturally  expect  that  many  patriotic  teachers  would 
be  deep  students  of  Scripture  and  earnest  observers 
of  the  established  forms.  They  would,  in  short,  be 
fervently  religious  men,  though  they  might  not 
always  think  it  expedient  to  display  their  fervour 
before  their  disciples.  There  would,  however,  also 
be  a  minority  who  would  not  be  satisfied  with  ele¬ 
mentary  instruction,  but  would  seek  to  carry  on  the 
intellectual  movement  of  the  past.  Some  of  them 
would  exhibit  in  their  teaching  a  perfect  fusion  of 
morality  and  religion ;  they  would  produce  works  to 
which  after-ages  would  look  up  as,  not,  indeed,  in  the 
received  sense,  revelation,  but  as  not  less  precious, 
not  less  truly  divine,  than  the  Law  or  the  prophecies. 
And  there  would  be  others  of  a  sceptical  turn,  whose 

*  “  He  that  devotes  himself  to  the  Law  is  filled  therewith,  but 
the  profane  person  stumbles  thereat”  (Ecclus.  xxxii.,  15). 


128  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


writings  would  only  escape  oblivion  by  some  happy 
chance. 

Thus  we  may  expect  to  find,  and  we  actually  do 
find,  three  varieties  of  didactic  and  reflective  ethical 
literature — two  representing  a  more  or  less  complete 
fusion  of  the  ethical  and  the  orthodox  religious  spirit, 
and  one  expressing  a  distinctly  heterodox  or  scepti¬ 
cal  tendency.  We  find,  too,  that  this  reflective 
literature  claimed  a  high  antiquity.  Just  as  sacred 
lyric  poetry  attached  itself  to  the  glorious  name  of 
David,  so  the  new  moral  literature  claimed  as  its 
originator  the  idealised  Solomon.*  A  post-exilic 
writer  has  been  at  the  pains  to  show  in  what  various 
forms  King  Solomon’s  wisdom  expressed  itself.  Solo¬ 
mon  was  of  course  a  just  and  skilful  ruler — that  more 
than  one  older  writer ‘had  brought  out  very  clearly. 
But  he  was  also  a  much  wider-minded  man  than  most 
rulers.  Listen  to  the  beautiful  little  narrative  in 
which  this  idea  is  conveyed  : 

“  And  God  gave  Solomon  wisdom  and  insight  and  a 
resourceful  mind.f  Solomon’s  wisdom  was  greater  than 
that  of  all  the  men  of  the  east  and  than  all  the  wisdom  of 
Egypt.  He  was  wiser  than  all  men,  wiser  than  Ethan 
the  Ezrahite,  and  Heman  and  Calcol  and  Darda,  the 
sons  of  Mahol  ;  and  his  fame  reached  all  the  nations 

*  There  may  of  course  have  been  a  pre-exilic  Wisdom-Literature, 
but  how  (if  such  existed)  it  stood  related  to  the  literature  of  the  post- 
exilic  Jewish  sages,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

f  A  mind  “seething”  with  new  ideas  (corrected  text). 


Jewish  Wisdom 


1 29 


round  about.  And  he  spoke  three  thousand  proverbs, 
and  his  songs  were  a  thousand  and  five.  And  he  spoke 
of  trees,  from  the  cedar  in  Lebanon  to  the  hyssop  which 
springs  out  of  the  wall ;  he  spoke  also  of  beasts  and  birds 
and  reptiles  and  fishes.  And  men  came  from  all  countries 
to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  from  all  the  kings  of  the 
earth  who  had  heard  of  his  wisdom  ”  (1  Kings  iv.,  29-34). 

No  explanation  of  this  is  as  reasonable  as  that 
which  finds  in  it  a  reference  to  our  Book  of  Proverbs,* 
to  our  Song  of  Songs,  and  to  our  Book  of  Job.  It  is 
true  that  we  have  only  one  “  song,”  the  title  of  which 
claims  Solomonic  authorship,  but  this  title  may  with¬ 
out  violence  be  so  rendered  as  to  make  Solomon  the 
author  of  an  indefinite  number  of  songs.  About 
twenty  plants  and  thirteen  animals  are  mentioned  in 
that  fascinating  poem,  the  Canticles,  and  it  may 
easily  have  been  supposed  that  in  Solomon's  other 
songs  many  more  plants  and  animals  were  referred  to. 
Beasts  and  birds  are  also  described  with  great  fulness 
in  the  Book  of  Job,  and  the  writer  of  the  eulogium 
on  Solomon  probably  means  to  imply  that  Solomon 
outdid  the  author  of  even  that  poetic  masterpiece. 

But  was  there  no  conception  of  wisdom,  no  attempt 
at  the  moral  instruction  of  the  young,  in  pre-exilic 

times?  Certainly.  Some  time  in  the  seventh  cen- 

* 

*  See  Ecclus.  xlvii.,  17,  where  the  Hebrew  text  shows  that  the 
writer  is  thinking  of  Prov.  i.,  6.  He  evidently  supposes  Solomon’s 

proverbs  to  be  exactly  analogous  to  those  in  our  Book  of  Proverbs. 

9 


130  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


tury  an  insertion  was  made  in  Genesis  xviii.,  to  show 
that  the  blessings  promised  to  Abraham  were  condi¬ 
tional  on  his  instilling  right  religion  and  morality  in¬ 
to  his  children  and  household  (vv.  17-19).  And 
whatever  be  the  exact  date  of  the  exhortations  in 
Deuteronomy  (e.g.,  iv.,  10;  vi.,  7,  20  ff.  ;  xi.,  19)  to 
instruct  children  in  the  sacred  history  and  law,  we 
may  presume  that  they  are  in  the  spirit  of  the  fram¬ 
ers  of  the  earlier  Deuteronomic  law-book.  This 
new  didactic  movement  was  an  indirect  result  of  the 
preaching  of  Isaiah,  who  succeeded  in  bringing  home 
to  the  best  minds  of  the  next  age  the  fact  of  the  gen¬ 
eral  moral  deficiency.  It  was  Isaiah  too  who,  first 
among  the  canonical  writers,  expressed  the  intuition 
of  Jehovah’s  wisdom  (Isa.  xxxi.,  2).  It  is  true  that 
some  belief  in  the  divine  wisdom  may  have  existed 
before  his  time  through  Babylonian  influence  on  the 
Canaanites.*  Still  it  is  most  improbable  that  this  be¬ 
lief  was  as  pure  and,  religiously,  as  vital  as  the  intui¬ 
tion  of  Isaiah.  With  what  loving  reverence  does  this 
prophet  speak  of  the  “  plan  ”  of  the  world’s  great 
Governor,  and  how  stern  is  his  contempt  for  the 
futile  schemes  of  those  who  do  not  “ask  at  Jehovah’s 
mouth”  (Isa.  xxx.,  2)!  For  his  own  part  he  does 
not  care  to  be  called  a  “  wise  man.”  Wisdom  in  a 
religious  sense  is  still  too  much  identified  with  skill 

*  The  god  Ea  was  called  “  lord  of  wisdom  and  understanding.” 


Jewish  Wisdom 


I3I 

in  the  performance  of  traditional  rites  or  in  the  reci¬ 
tation  of  magic  formulae.  It  is  better  to  be  Jehovah’s 
mouthpiece,  and  to  ascribe  to  Him  all  the  honour  of 
that  marvellous  insight  which  has  made  Isaiah  the 
wisest  of  the  Israelites  of  his  time. 

Let  us  now  briefly  sketch  the  outlines  of  the  early 
popular  idea  of  wisdom.  Great  rulers,  like  David 
and  Solomon,  were  said  to  have  “  the  wisdom  of 
God,”  or  of  “God’s  angel”  (2  Sam.  xiv.,  17,  20; 
1  Kings  iii.,  28),  because  they  could  give  rapid  and 
just  judicial  decisions.  Politicians,  too,  could  be 
likened  to  incarnate  divine  oracles  ;  Ahithophel  is  an 
instance  of  this  (2  Sam.  xvi.,  23).  Soothsayers, 
priests,  and  prophets  were  revered  as  wise,  because 
they  claimed  to  tell  men  the  will  of  God,  though 
Jeremiah  calls  the  pen  of  the  scribes  who  wrote 
down  the  supposed  wisdom  of  the  law-books  a  “  lying 
pen  ”  (Jer.  viii.,  8),  because  their  work  threatened  to 
check  his  own  more  spiritual  preaching.  Poets, 
too,  to  the  Israelites  as  well  as  to  the  Arabs,  must 
have  appeared  to  have  more  than  earthly  wisdom  ; 
they  partook  of  the  inspiration  of  the  prophet.* 
And  framers  of  apologues  or  parables  like  those  of 
Jotham  and  the  “wise  woman  ”  f  of  Tekoa  were 

*  Note  that  Balaam  the  seer  is  said  to  “take  up  a  parable,”  or 
rather  to  “  utter  a  poem  ”  ( mashal )  in  Num.  xxiii.,  xxiv. 

f  Judg.  ix.,  8-15  ;  2  Sam.  xiv.,  2.  The  phrase  “wise  woman  ”  is 
used  in  a  different  sense  in  Jer.  ix.,  17. 


132  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


doubtless  looked  up  to  as  in  their  degree  divinely 
gifted  ;  indeed,  even  the  traditional  skill  of  crafts¬ 
men  was  devoutly  traced  to  a  divine  gift,  as  the 
Hebrew  legends  of  the  origin  of  culture  prove.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  ought  to  be  mentioned  that  there 
was  also  a  current  story  in  which  even  the  know¬ 
ledge  of  good  and  evil  was  represented  as  an  illegiti¬ 
mate  acquisition.  It  was  a  first  attempt  to  account 
for  the  mingled  grandeur  and  poverty  of  human  life. 
Man  was  like  the  divine  beings  in  knowledge,  but 
sadly  unlike  them  in  his  liability  to  sickness  and 
death.  It  was  reserved  for  a  later  age  to  arrive  at 
the  conviction  that  true  wisdom  was  a  tree  of  life. 

Whether  any  fruitful  contact  between  the  incipient 
wisdom  of  the  Israelites  and  that  of  their  neighbours 
took  place  in  pre-exilic  times,  we  know  not.  Jere¬ 
miah  speaks  of  the  wisdom  of  Teman  (Jer.  xlix., 
7),  and  it  is  just  conceivable  that  the  story  of  Job, 
partly  moralised,  may  have  come  from  Edom  shortly 
before  the  Exile.  At  any  rate,  such  contact  existed 
(as  we  shall  see)  in  post-exilic  times.  The  story  of 
Solomon’s  wisdom  itself  suggests  this.  No  stress 
need  be  laid  on  the  particular  peoples  mentioned  by 
the  narrator.  The  point  to  dwell  upon  is  that  the 
reputed  wisdom  of  Solomon  was  cosmopolitan. 
There  were  wise  men  among  other  nations,  just 
as  there  were  true  though  unconscious  worshippers 


Jewish  Wisdom 


133 


of  Jehovah  (Mai.  i.,  11).  Solomon  was  superior  to 
them,  because,  as  the  Jews  believed,  he  knew  the 
one  true  God  better  than  they  did,  and  they  came 
to  him  for  stimulus  and  instruction.  From  the  Pro¬ 
logue  to  Proverbs  we  see  that  this  entirely  corre¬ 
sponds  to  the  temper  of  some  of  the  Jewish  sages* 
One  of  these  makes  personified  Wisdom  exclaim 
(Prov.  viii.,  4)  : 

“  Unto  you,  O  men,  I  call, 

And  my  appeal  is  to  the  human  race  ”  ; 

and  later  on,  in  the  grandest  of  her  soliloquies,  she 
declares  that  of  all  God’s  created  works  she  delighted 
most  in  the  race  of  man  (Prov.  viii.,  31). 

It  is  true,  no  attempt  is  made  in  the  two  earlier 
Books  of  Wisdom  to  make  practical  use  of  the  prin¬ 
ciple  involved  in  these  passages.  But  the  universal 
relation  of  Wisdom  is  asserted,  and  it  only  required 
time  for  the  Jewish  sages  to  awaken  to  the  conscious¬ 
ness  of  the  necessary  practical  inferences.  The  author 
of  the  so-called  Wisdom  of  Solomon  is  the  bravest 
and  boldest  of  them  all,  for  he  is  willing  to  take  as 
well  as  give  instruction,  and,  like  Philo,  fervently  be¬ 
lieves  in  the  reality  of  ethnic  inspiration.  But  at 
present  we  must  be  satisfied  with  the  larger  outlook 
already  obtained  by  post-exilic  sages.  This  was  not 
lost  even  by  the  author  of  Ecclesiasticus,  though  he 


134  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


lays  more  stress  on  forms  of  religion  than  did  the 
earlier  wise  men.  To  complete  his  education,  he 
says,  the  wise  man  must  “  travel  through  the  land  of 
strange  nations,”  must  “  try  good  things  and  evil 
among  men,”  and  “  if  the  great  Lord  will,”  and  he 
is  “  filled  with  the  spirit  of  understanding,”  the 
“  nations  ”  in  general,  as  well  as  the  congregation, 
will  “declare  his  praise”  (Ecclus.  xxxix.,  4,  10). 
For  not  with  Jews,  as  Jews,  but  with  men  did^  Wis¬ 
dom  “lay  an  eternal  foundation,  and  with  their 
offspring  shall  she  be  had  in  trust”  (Ecclus.  i.,  15). 
In  fact,  all  the  wise  men  have  grasped  the  grand  idea 
of  a  human  family.  It  may  also  be  found  in  the 
Psalter.  But  that  important  Book  has  in  this  re¬ 
spect  one  very  sad  limitation.  The  sufferings  of  the 
Jews,  and  especially  of  the  tlite  among  them,  were 
so  great  towards  the  close  of  the  Persian  empire  that, 
by  a  pathetic  fallacy,  it  seemed  as  if  all  mankind  ex¬ 
cept  the  J ews  were  morally  worthless.  Those  psalms 
into  which  a  sense  of  something  like  the  brotherhood 
of  nations  begins  to  penetrate  are  for  various  reasons 
later  than  332  B.c.  I  call  this  limitation  of  view  a 
sad  one.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  great  picture  of 
the  missionary  Servant  of  Jehovah  should  have  had, 
comparatively  speaking,  so  little  effect.  Still  a  per¬ 
fectly  adequate  cause  has  been  adduced  for  this  un- 
progressiveness  :  psychological  miracles  are  not  to  be 


Jewish  Wisdom 


135 


expected.  Not  till  the  coming  of  the  great  Mace¬ 
donian  reconciler  of  East  and  West  could  there  be  a 
presentiment  of  the  truth  of  the  divine  education, 
not  only  of  Israel,  but  of  the  human  race. 

One  may  be  thankful  that  the  Psalter  does  not 
entirely  belong  to  the  Persian  period.  Among  the 
debts  which  we  owe  to  the  later  psalmists,  do  not  let 
us  overlook  these  striking  words: 

“  He  that  disciplines  the  nations,  cannot  He  punish — 

He  that  teaches  mankind  knowledge  ?  ”  (Ps.  xciv.,  10.) 

They  imply  just  that  notion  which  we  find  in  the 
story  of  Solomon’s  wisdom,  viz.,  that  wisdom,  di¬ 
vinely  given  wisdom,  is  accessible  to  all  men  ;  but 
they  add  that  the  object  of  the  divine  instructor  is 
not  merely  theoretical  but  practical.  A  moralist  of 
a  later  date  puts  this  in  a  more  attractive  form : 

“  The  mercy  of  a  man  is  upon  his  neighbour, 

But  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  is  upon  all  flesh  ; 
Reproving,  disciplining,  and  teaching, 

And  bringing  back,  as  a  shepherd  does  his  flock.” 

(Ecclus.  xviii.,  13.) 

A  fine  saying,  is  it  not?  and  it  suggests  one  of  the 
chief  requisites  of  an  educator, — a  friendly  feeling 
towards  his  pupils.  God’s  patient,  considerate  in¬ 
struction  is  the  result  of  His  mercy  or  loving-kind¬ 
ness,  and  He  desires  a  similar  loving-kindness  among 


136  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


fellow-citizens,  that  they  may  be  educationally  useful 
to  each  other.  In  default  of  this  loving-kindness,  a 
man  deserves  no  better  title  than  “  fool,”  for 

“  To  commit  a  crime  is  sport  to  a  fool.” 

(Prov.  x.,  23.) 

The  Jewish  teachers  were  in  general  very  hopeless 
of  making  anything  of  such  persons.  Once  we  find 
the  noble  sentiment  that 

“  Even  a  senseless  man  may  be  taught, 

And  a  wild  ass’s  colt  may  be  caught.”* 

(Job.  xi.,  12.) 

But  more  often  we  find  nothing  but  prophecies  of 
evil  for  the  “  fool,”  and  a  recommendation  not  to 
spare  stripes  for  his  back.  That  a  “  fool”  was  ever 
reformed  by  this  treatment,  we  do  not  hear.  A  pro¬ 
verb  assures  us  that 

“  Even  if  thou  pound  a  fool  in  the  midst  of  his  fellows,  f 
Thou  wilt  not  remove  his  foolishness  from  him  ” 

(Prov.  xxvii.,  22)  ; 

and  another  that 

“  A  rebuke  penetrates  into  one  that  has  understanding  ; 
(But)  a  fool,  when  he  is  smitten,  makes  light  of  it.” 

(Prov.  xvii.,  10.) 

*  The  rhyme  corresponds  to  the  assonance  in  the  original,  according 
to  a  very  possible  correction  of  the  corrupt  Hebrew  text  (“  The 
Book  of  Job,”  Expositor ,  June,  1897). 
f  Compare  the  Septuagint. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


137 


With  this  exception,  however,  the  wise  men  them¬ 
selves  admit  no  limit  to  their  influence.  It  is  useless 
to  assert  a  priori  that  wise  maxims  can  have  done 
little  to  keep  the  Jewish  youth  in  the  right  paths. 
Experience  taught  the  ancients  otherwise  in  many 
different  countries.  To  us  these  Hebrew  proverbs 
may  seem  at  first  sight  to  be  destitute  of  motive 
power,  but  a  close  inspection  will  modify  this  opinion. 
Provisionally,  the  Hebrew  Wisdom  was  of  the  great¬ 
est  practical  service.  It  passed  necessarily  into  some¬ 
thing  widely  different,  but  not  without  leaving  a 
permanent  impression  on  the  form  of  the  teaching 
which  succeeded  it.  How  indeed  could  it  have  been 
otherwise?  for  the  best  men  of  the  time  were  among 
these  proverbial  teachers,  and  in  reading  the  finest 
parts  of  Proverbs  even  we  can  appreciate  the  force  of 
the  saying  that 

“  The  fruit  of  the  righteous  is  a  tree  of  life, 

And  the  wise  man  is  a  winner  of  souls.” 

(Prov.  xi.,  30.) 

How  carefully  the  so-called  Wisdom  was  planned, we 
see  from  the  strong  secular  element  in  it.  If  the  fear 
of  Jehovah  is  the  first  part  of  the  instruction  which  it 
gives,  the  art  of  getting  on  in  the  world  is  the  second. 
It  is  almost  amusing  to  notice  that  the  same  writer 
who  says  that  wisdom  is  far  better  than  riches  also 


138  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


informs  us  that  wisdom  is  the  best  road  to  wealth 
(Prov.  iii.,  14-16;  viii.,  18-19).  In  fact,  one  of  the 
most  characteristic  terms  for  wisdom  means  ability  to 
steer  well,  and  the  general  spirit  of  the  sayings  of  the 
wise  men  can  scarcely  be  called  idealistic.  The  tone 
which  pervades  them  is  that  of  a  calm  reasonableness ; 
indeed,  we  are  told  in  so  many  words  that  “  he  that 
is  of  a  cool  spirit  is  a  man  of  understanding  ”  (Prov. 
xvii.,  27).  Now  and  then  this  “  coolness  ”  even  seems 
to  a  modern  to  degenerate  into  meanness  : 

“  A  clever  man  sees  a  misfortune  coming,  and  hides  him¬ 
self, 

While  those  who  are  simple  pass  on  and  suffer  for  it.” 

(Prov.  xxii.,  3.) 

This,  however,  is  merely  a  relic  of  that  old  no¬ 
madic  love  of  craft  or  subtlety,*  from  which  even 
David  was  not  exempt. 

On  the  whole,  the  wise  men  recommended  ener¬ 
getic  action,  such  as  befits  those  who  are  conscious  of 
rectitude  and  of  enjoying  the  divine  favour. 

But  what  of  the  religious  aspect  of  this  proverbial 
wisdom?  We  may  easily  be  led  to  underrate  this. 
It  ought,  however,  to  be  emphatically  stated  that  the 

*  Even  the  strongly  religious  author  of  the  Prologue  to  Proverbs 
three  times  makes  “subtlety”  or  “  cleverness”  an  essential  part  of 
wisdom  (i.,  4;  viii.,  5,  12).  On  the  other  hand,  “subtlety”  and 
“  subtle  ”  are  used  with  a  bad  connotation  in  Job  (v.,  12-13  ;  xv., 
5).  Cf.  Lecture  III. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


139 


wise  men  presuppose  more  than  they  expressly  state. 
Their  teaching  may  at  first  sight  seem  almost  purely 
secular,  but  it  takes  for  granted  the  theory  of  earthly 
retribution,  which  is  a  fundamental  doctrine  of  the 
Law,  and  it  lays  stress  on  precisely  those  moral  qual¬ 
ities  which  follow  from  the  due  performance  of  the 
commandments.  In  recommending  wisdom,  those 
early  moralists  certainly  meant  to  recommend  the 
Law,  or  at  least  to  show  that  orthodox  religion  was 
not  merely  not  inconsistent  with,  but  even  conducive 
to,  worldly  success.  To  call  their  wisdom  either 
secular  or,  in  a  modern  sense,  utilitarian  would  be  a 
mistake.  Its  religious  character  indeed  is  not  unfre- 
quently  affirmed.  Thus  we  hear  that 

“  The  fear  of  Jehovah  is  a  discipline  for  wisdom, 

And  before  honour  is  humility  ” 

(Prov.  xv.,  33) ; 

i.  e .,  the  constant  practice  of  religion  is  the  right 
school  of  wisdom,  and  humility  (which,  as  the  later 
writers  teach,  is  one  half  of  righteousness)  will  be 
finally  rewarded  with  honour. 

“The  fear  of  Jehovah  prolongs  days, 

But  the  years  of  the  wicked  will  be  shortened  ” 

(Prov.  x.,  27)  ; 

“  The  way  [t\  e.}  procedure]  of  Jehovah  is  a  stronghold  to 
the  innocent, 

But  ruin  to  the  workers  of  iniquity  ” 


(x.,  29)  ; 


140  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


“  He  that  walks  in  his  uprightness  fears  Jehovah, 

But  he  that  is  perverse  in  his  ways  despises  Him  ” 

(Prov.  xiv.,  2)  ; 

i.  e .,  religion  and  morality  are  identical. 

“  He  that  oppresses  the  poor  despises  the  poor  man’s 
Maker, 

But  Jehovah  honours  him  that  has  pity  on  the  needy  ” 

(xiv.,  31)  ; 

i.  e .,  morality  is  based  on  the  common  relation  of 
all  men  to  the  Creator. 

“  Sheol  and  Abaddon  [/.  e.,  all  parts  of  the  nether  world] 
are  before  Jehovah  ; 

How  much  more  then  the  hearts  of  mankind  ! 

The  eyes  of  Jehovah  are  in  every  place, 

Observing  the  evil  and  the  good  ” 

(xv.,  3,  n)  ; 

two  beautiful  expressions  for  the  omniscience  of 
Jehovah — a  divine  attribute  which  became  more 
fully  realised  after  the  time  of  Jeremiah.  For  we 
cannot  doubt  that  the  observation  spoken  of  extends 
to  the  heart  and  conscience.  A  psalmist  of  the  Greek 
period  finely  says : 

“  Out  of  heaven  Jehovah  looked  down, 

He  beheld  all  the  race  of  men  ; 

From  his  sure  habitation  He  gazed 
Upon  all  who  dwell  on  the  earth — 

He  who  formed  the  hearts  of  them  all, 

Who  takes  note  of  all  their  works.” 

(Ps.  xxxiii.,  13-15.) 


Jewish  Wisdom 


141 


Another  wise  man  says  that 

“  The  sacrifice  of  the  wicked  is  an  abomination  to 
Jehovah, 

But  the  prayer  of  the  upright  is  His  delight  ” 

(Prov.  xv.,  8), 

implying,  by  the  way,  that  prayer  is  the  best  part 
of  the  sacrificial  service,  and  is  acceptable  even  with¬ 
out  sacrifice.  And  another  goes  even  farther,  and 
says  : 

“  To  do  the  just  and  right  thing 
Is  pre-eminent  with  Jehovah  above  sacrifice.” 

(xxi.,  3  ;  cf.  ver.  27.) 

I  will  now  quote  one  of  the  finest  religious  sayings  in 
Proverbs : 

“  Disclose  what  thou  wouldest  do  to  Jehovah, 

And  thy  purposes  shall  be  established.” 

(xvi.,  3.) 

«» 

Of  course  this  only  refers  to  righteous  purposes. 
The  wise  man  cannot  mean  that  we  can  make  God 
our  fellow-conspirator  against  our  enemies.  On  the 
contrary,  as  another  proverb  says  : 

“  Rejoice  not,  when  thine  enemy  falls,* 

And  let  not  thine  heart  be  glad  when  he  is  overthrown  ; 
Lest  Jehovah  see  it,  and  it  displease  Him, 

And  he  turn  away  His  wrath  from  thine  enemy.” 

(xxiv.,  17.) 

*  /.  e. ,  when  a  calamity  overtakes  him. 


142  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


The  idea  is  that  a  malicious  joy  at  the  misfortunes 
of  another  is  displeasing  to  God,  even  if  that  other 
be  an  enemy  of  the  righteous,  and  that  if,  knowing 
God’s  will  but  doing  it  not,  the  righteous  man  com¬ 
mits  this  sin,  he  will  be  more  deserving  of  punish¬ 
ment  than  his  adversary. 

And  again  : 

“  If  thine  enemy  hunger,  give  him  food  ; 

Or  if  he  thirst,  give  him  water  to  drink  ! 

For  hot  coals  thou  takest  away,* 

And  Jehovah  will  recompense  thee.” 

(Prov.  xxv.,  21,  22.) 

The  meaning  is,  that  the  new  relation  created  by 
this  unexpected  hospitality  will  supersede  the  old 
pernicious  relation  of  oppressor  and  oppressed.  The 
“hot  coals”  of  strife  (see  xxvi.,  21)  will  have  been 
firmly  grasped  and  removed,  and  the  recompense  due 
to  those  who  relieve  the  needy  will  be  paid  by 
Jehovah.  Here  there  is  a  chance  for  the  righteous  to 
melt  the  hard  hearts  of  the  wicked,  and  save  them 
from  the  otherwise  certain  retribution.  Or  if  this  be 
too  high  a  flight  for  most  minds,  yet  all  can  under¬ 
stand  that 

“  If  a  man’s  ways  please  Jehovah, 

He  reconciles  even  his  enemies  to  him.” 

(xvi.,  7.) 

*  Adopting  a  correction  of  the  text,  which  relieves  the  proverb- 
writer  from  the  charge  of  ethical  inconsistency. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


H3 


Evidently  the  Jewish  world  has  made  some  pro¬ 
gress  since  personified  Israel  prayed  : 

“  Put  to  shame  and  dishonour  be  those  that  seek  my  soul, 

Turned  back  and  abashed  be  those  that  plan  my  hurt ; 

Be  they  as  chaff  before  the  wind, 

And  Jehovah’s  angel  pursuing  them  ; 

Be  their  way  dark  and  slippery, 

And  Jehovah’s  angel  thrusting  them.” 

(Ps.  xxxv.,  4-6.) 

We  must  remember,  however,  that  it  is  not  in  gen¬ 
eral  of  individuals  but  of  hostile  communities  or  fac¬ 
tions  that  the  psalmists  speak.  Individuals  can  more 
easily  be  reached  by  kindness  than  bodies  of  men. 
Also  that  the  same  collection  of  Jewish  proverbs  con¬ 
tains  this  startling  saying : 

“  Jehovah  has  made  everything  for  its  special  end  ; 
Yea,  even  the  wicked  for  the  day  of  trouble.” 

(Prov.  xvi.,  4.) 

This  reminds  us  of  a  psalmist  who,  looking  back  on 
the  oppressive  rule  and  sudden  collapse  of  the  Per¬ 
sian  empire,  attributes  it  to  a  deep  design  of  Jehovah 
which  a  “  fool  ”  cannot  understand  : 

“  When  the  wicked  spring  as  the  herbage, 

And  all  the  workers  of  iniquity  blossom, 

It  is  (only)  that  they  may  be  destroyed  forever, 
Whilst  Thou,  Jehovah,  art  King  eternally.” 

(Ps.  xcii.,  7,  8.) 


144  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Both  psalmist  and  wise  man  assume  that  there  are 
human  beings  who  are  irredeemably  bad,  viz.,  those 
Jews  who  have  turned  aside  from  truth  to  serve  a  lie, 
and  those  heathen  who  have  banded  themselves 
together  to  put  out  the  one  great  light  which  God 
has  set  in  a  dark  world — the  light  of  the  covenant 
people  of  Israel.  Such  wicked  men  cannot  repent ; 
they  must  be  wiped  out  of  existence.  Their  “  dis- 
proportioned  sin  ” 

“  Jars  against  nature’s  chime,  and  with  harsh  din 
Breaks  the  fair  music  that  all  creatures  make 
To  their  great  Lord.”  * 

But  both  psalmist  and  wise  man  have  learned  to  be 
more  patient  than  formerly  seemed  possible.  The 
“  day  of  Jehovah  ”  must  be  waited  for.  It  is  useless 
to  cry  out,  “  Rouse  Thee ;  why  sleepest  Thou, 
Jehovah?”  (Ps.  xliv.,  24.)  For  the  present,  the 
Omniscient  One  tolerates  bad  as  well  as  good  ;  He 
lets  both  grow  together  till  the  harvest.  As  a  wise 
man  says: 

“  The  poor  man  and  the  exactor  jostle  each  other  ; 
Jehovah  lightens  the  eyes  of  both.” 

(Prov.  xxix.,  13.) 

It  is  in  fact  this  coexistence  of  good  and  bad,  wise 
and  foolish,  within  the  same  community  which  makes 

*  Milton,  “  At  a  Solemn  Musick.” 


Jewish  Wisdom 


145 


a  strong  central  authority  indispensable.  Could  the 
individualising  method  of  the  teachers  called  wise 
men  be  universally  applied,  it  would  still  be  difficult 
to  repress  the  anarchic  tendencies  of  the  multitude. 
For 

“  Without  a  curb*  people  become  unruly  ; 

But  he  that  keeps  the  law,  happy  is  he.” 

(Prov.  xxix.,  18.) 

The  term  “the  law"  means  here  that  condensed 
extract  and  practical  application  of  the  teaching  of 
the  Scriptures  which  was  prepared  by  the  wise  men 
for  their  pupils.  The  misfortune  was  that  the  central 
authority  was  in  the  hands  of  heathen  rulers,  who 
had  not  the  same  moral  standards  as  the  wise  men. 
Hence  the  tone  of  the  proverbs  respecting  the  king 
is  somewhat  surprising.  Was  the  king  in  some 
passages  a  native  ruler  ?  Was  he  even  sometimes  the 
Messiah  ?  These  are  the  passages  in  question  : 

(i.)  “The  king’s  favour  is  for  an  intelligent  servant, 

But  a  base  one  experiences  his  wrath.” 

(xiv.,  35-) 

(ii.)  “Jehovah’  oracle  is  on  the  lips  of  the  king  ; 

His  mouth  will  not  offend  against  justice.” 

(xvi.,  10.) 

*  Here  the  importance  of  a  corrected  text  is  specially  apparent. 
The  received  text  has  “  Without  vision,”  which  is  supposed  to  mean 
“without  prophetic  revelation.” 

IO 


146  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


(iii.)  “  Loving-kindness  and  truth  guard  the  king  ; 

And  by  loving-kindness  he  supports  his  throne.” 

(Prov.  xx.,  28.) 

(iv.)  “Take  away  the  dross  from  the  silver, 

And  the  whole  of  it  comes  out  refined  ; 

Take  away  the  wicked  from  before  the  king, 

And  by  righteousness  his  throne  is  established.” 

(xxv.,  4,  5.) 

(v.)  “My  son,  fear  Jehovah  and  the  king, 

And  meddle  not  with  those  who  hate  them  ; 

For  suddenly  their  calamity  will  rise, 

And  the  ruin  of  the  haters  will  come  unawares  ” 

(xxiv.,  21,  22.) 

(vi.)  “  Three  things  are  of  stately  walk, 

Yea,  four  of  stately  going  : 

The  lion — the  hero  among  the  beasts, 

That  nothing  makes  to  turn  back, 

The  cock  *  that  (proudly)  lifts  itself  up,  and  the 
he-goat, 

And  a  king,  the  champion  of  his  people.” 

(xxx.,  29-31.) 

There  is  also  a  curious  group  of  counsels  (xxxi.,  1-9) 

described  as  “  Words  of  a  king ;  a  proverb  [or, 

poem]  with  which  his  mother  instructed  him.”  The 

sayings,  however,  are  plainly  artificial  and  of  very 

late  origin  ;  they  need  not  detain  us  now. 

The  sayings  in  the  former  group  are  much  more 

interesting.  But  not  even  all  these  have  a  clear  note 

*  If  this  rendering  is  correct  it  favours,  and  indeed  requires,  a  very 
late  date  for  the  passage.  See  “  Cock  ”  in  Encyclopedia  Biblica. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


147 


of  reality.  A  non-Jewish  king  might  conceivably  be 
idealised  in  a  more  or  less  complimentary  lyric 
poem,  but  hardly  in  proverbs  designed  for  the 
popular  instruction.  Surely  it  is  only  the  last  two  of 
the  first  group  which  refer  to  contemporary  kings — the 
first  to  a  Graeco-Egyptian,  the  second  probably  to  a 
Maccabaean  prince.  The  four  preceding  ones,  how¬ 
ever,  are  specially  interesting  to  students  of  religion. 
They  represent  a  Messianic  element  in  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  like  that  represented  by  most  of  the  royal 
hymns  in  the  Psalter.  The  writers  look  forward  with 
much  assurance  to  the  speedy  renewal  of  the  native 
royalty,  and  seek  to  instil  into  the  minds  of  their 
young  disciples  lofty  ideas  of  the  kingly  character. 
The  sayings  remind  us  of  Psalms  xlv.  and  lxxii.  No 
such  Messianic  element  exists  in  the  Book  of  Eccle- 
siasticus,  though  that  interesting  book  does  contain 
a  prayer  of  considerable  beauty  for  the  deliverance 
and  glorification  of  Israel.  (Ecclus.  xxxvi.,  1— 1 7). 

There  is  no  trace,  however,  that  the  wise  men 
had  any  systematised  Messianic  belief ;  they  seem 
completely  to  neglect  the  incipient  theories  of  the 
later  prophetic  writers.  It  is  not  an  emperor  of  the 
world,  but  a  blameless,  modest-minded  king  of  Israel 
whom  they  set  before  us,  though,  in  accordance 
apparently  with  a  fixed  rule,  they  do  not  once 
mention  the  name  of  Israel.  For  this  king  they 


148  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


patiently  wait,  because  they  trust  Jehovah  not  to 
leave  them  always  under  the  rule  of  the  Ptolemies, 
however  endurable  this  might  be,  compared  with  the 
rule  of  the  last  Persian  kings.  They  are  content 
that  the  final  doomsday  should  be  put  off  for  a 
season,  because  they  observe  that  even  now  the 
righteous  are  not  altogether  forsaken,  and  that 
individuals  at  any  rate  receive  an  adequate  earthly 
recompense  for  their  righteousness.  Probably,  too, 
the  majority  of  the  wise  men  were  limited  in  the 
expression  of  their  views  by  educational  considera¬ 
tions.  “  To  fear  Jehovah  and  to  shun  evil  ”  was  all 
that  the  ordinary  man  required. 

For  some  of  the  wise  men,  however,  this  severely 
practical  view  of  wisdom  was  not  enough.  There  is 
one  passage  even  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs  which 
suggests  an  interest  in  cosmic  phenomena,  and  there 
are  other  passages  in  Job.  It  is  true,  the  former 
passage  occurs  in  the  Prologue  of  Proverbs,  which 
has  a  unity  of  its  own,  and  is  very  distinct  in  many 
respects  from  the  body  of  the  work.  Here  is  the 
description.  It  consists  of  five  stanzas  of  four  lines 
each  *  : 

“  Jehovah  produced  me  as  the  firstfruits  of  His  creation, 

The  earliest  of  His  primaeval  works  ; 

*On  the  text,  see  article  “On  Some  Obscure  Passages”  etc., 
Jewish  Quarterly  Review,  Oct.,  1897. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


H9 


For  from  of  old  was  I  woven  together, 

From  the  beginning,  from  the  first  days  of  the  world. 

“  When  the  floods  were  not,  I  was  brought  forth, 

When  there  were  no  fountains  abounding  with  water, 
Before  the  mountains  were  deeply  fixed, 

Before  the  hills  was  I  brought  forth.  * 

“  Ere  He  had  made  the  land  and  the  grass, 

And  had  clothed  with  green  the  clods  of  mother-earth  ; 
When  He  prepared  the  heavens,  I  was  there, 

When  He  marked  out  a  circle  over  the  ocean  ; 

“  When  He  established  the  clouds  above, 

When  He  made  firm  the  founts  of  the  ocean, 

When  He  appointed  to  the  sea  its  bound, 

That  the  waters  should  not  transgress  His  command  ; 

“  Then  was  I  daily  beside  Him  as  an  artificer, 

Sporting  continually  before  Him, 

Sporting  in  the  elaboration  \  of  his  earth, 

And  having  my  delight  in  the  race  of  man.” 

(Prov.  viii.,  22-31.) 

This  is  certainly  one  of  the  greatest  passages  in  the 
Wisdom-literature.  It  states  that  pre-existent  Wis¬ 
dom  was  the  artificer  of  the  world,  one  in  purpose 
and  in  act  with  the  creative  Deity,  and,  taken  with 
the  context,  it  implies  that  Wisdom  introduces  her 
disciples  to  the  study  of  cosmic  phenomena  as  well 

*  This  resembles  the  description  of  the  first  man,  who  is  primaeval 
wisdom  personified,  in  Job  xv.,  7,  8. 

f  This  appears  to  be  a  certain  correction  of  the  text.  It  probably 
decides  the  correctness  of  the  rendering  “artificer”  in  line  1  of  the 
stanza. 


150  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


as  of  practical  ethics.  The  beginning  or  first  part 
of  wisdom  is,  according  to  the  writer,  the  fear  of 
Jehovah  ;  or,  to  widen  our  definition  without  mis¬ 
representing  his  meaning,  it  is  a  combination  of 
religion  with  a  certain  practical  cleverness.  But  the 
latter  part  is  something  of  a  more  refined,  esoteric 
type.  It  is  the  contemplation  of  God’s  works  in 
nature,  and  it  is  just  such  a  contemplation  of  the 
ideals  of  which  those  works  are  the  expression,  or,  in 
Hebrew  phraseology,  of  pre-existent  Wisdom,  which 
God  Himself  did  not  disdain  when  He  made  the 
world.  For,  as  another  Hebrew  poet,  one  of  the 
writers  of  the  Book  of  Job,  finely  says: 

“  When  He  made  a  weight  for  the  wind, 

And  determined  the  waters  by  measure, 

Then  He  beheld  and  studied  her  well, 

He  set  her  up  and  fathomed  her  depths.” 

(Job  xxviii.,  26,  27.) 

In  fact,  the  Book  of  Job  contains  more  than  one 
passage  in  which  the  larger  conception  of  human 
wisdom  is  clearly  expressed.  For  instance,  the 
author  of  the  Speeches  of  Jehovah  certainly  en¬ 
courages  the  observation  of  nature.  He  has  not, 
indeed,  the  modern,  scientific  spirit,  and  looks  at 
nature  in  a  poetic,  imaginative  way,  with  an  under¬ 
lying  didactic  object.  But  we  must  not  underrate 
the  importance  of  this.  To  be  interested  in  nature 


Jewish  Wisdom 


I5i 

is  the  first  step  to  seeking  to  comprehend  her. 
Gladly  would  I  quote  some  of  this  writer’s  fine 
pictures  of  animal  life,  but  I  have  only  space  for  a 
series  of  naive  questions  to  which  there  are  some¬ 
what  striking  parallels  in  the  sacred  Zoroastrian 
literature.  Hebrew  affinities  are  not  wanting,  how¬ 
ever.  The  first  couplet,  which  speaks  of  a  visit  to 
the  divine  stores  of  snow  and  hail,  reminds  us  of  the 
story  of  Enoch  as  developed  in  the  book  which 
bears  Enoch’s  name.* 

“  Hast  thou  (ever)  come  to  the  store-chambers  of  the 
snow, 

And  seen  the  store-keepers  of  the  hail, — 

Which  I  have  reserved  for  the  time  of  trouble, 

For  the  day  of  battle  and  war  ? 

“  By  what  way  does  the  mist  part 
That  it  may  sprinkle  cool  moisture  on  the  earth  ? 

Who  cleft  a  conduit  for  the  rain-torrent, 

And  a  way  for  the  flashes  of  the  storm, — 

“To  send  rain  on  a  land  without  men, 

On  the  wilderness  wherein  are  no  people, 

To  satisfy  the  utter  desolation, 

And  to  cause  the  thirsty  land  to  put  forth  fresh 
herbage  ? 

“  Out  of  whose  womb  came  the  ice  ? 

And  the  hoar-frost  of  heaven — who  begot  it? 


*  Enoch  lx.,  17  ;  cf.  lxix.,  23. 


152  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


The  waters  close  together  as  if  a  stone, 

And  the  surface  of  the  deep  hides  itself. 

“  Dost  thou  bind  the  knots  of  the  Pleiades  ? 

Or  loose  the  fetters  of  Orion  ? 

Canst  thou  bring  out  the  Hyades  at  its  season  ? 

And  guide  the  Bear  and  her  offspring  ?  * 

“  Knowest  thou  the  laws  of  heaven  ? 

Dost  thou  appoint  its  influence  on  the  earth  ? 

Canst  thou  send  up  a  command  to  the  cloud 
That  abundance  of  water  may  cover  thee  ?”  f 

The  irony  of  the  questions  is  unmistakable.  But 
their  object  is  not  merely  to  humble  Job  by  giving 
him  a  sense  of  his  limitations,  but  to  encourage  him 
to  step  out  of  himself  into  the  great  picture-gallery 
of  the  outer  world.  The  poet,  who  is  also  a  wise 
man,  agrees  neither  with  Job  and  his  friends,  as 
described  in  the  dialogues,  nor  with  an  editor  who, 
in  opposition  to  the  poet  whose  work  he  manipu¬ 
lates,  asserts  that  the  “  only  proper  study  of  man¬ 
kind  ”  is  practical  religion.  Let  me  read  a  part  of 
the  last  strophe  of  the  poem  referred  to  : 

“  Whence  then  proceeds  wisdom  ? 

And  where  is  the  place  of  understanding? 

Seeing  that  it  is  hidden  from  the  eyes  of  all  living, 
And  kept  close  from  the  birds  of  the  sky. 

*  The  renderings  of  the  names  of  the  constellations  are  not  alto¬ 
gether  certain. 

t  Jobxxxviii.,  22-27,  29-34  (from  a  corrected  text).  See  J.  Q.  R., 
Oct.,  1897. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


153 


u  The  abyss  and  the  nether  world  say, 

The  report  of  her  has  reached  our  ears. 

God  has  marked  the  way  to  her, 

He  is  acquainted  with  her  place.”  * 

Wisdom,  then,  is  not  independent  of  God,  who,  in¬ 
deed,  was  the  first  to  find  her  out.  This  discovery 
and  its  importance  for  the  creative  process  are 
explained  in  the  last  quatrain,  which  I  have  already 
quoted. f  And  then,  unexpectedly  enough,  comes 
the  following  only  too  orthodox  statement : 

“  And  he  said  to  man,  Behold,  the  fear  of  Jehovah — 
that  is  wisdom,  and  to  shun  evil  is  understanding.”  J 

I  do  not  say  that  the  author  of  this  addition  was  a 
man  of  no  ideas,  but  I  say  that  he  differed  from  the 
author  of  the  poem,  who  certainly  did  not  mean  by 
his  grand  eulogy  of  the  higher  Wisdom  to  dis¬ 
courage  men  from  interesting  themselves  in  nature. 
This  new  writer  had  no  poetic  imagination,  and,  as 
might  be  expected,  he  writes  in  prose  and  not  in 
verse. 

It  was  remarked  just  now  that  the  wise  man  who 
wrote  the  Speeches  of  Jehovah  does  not  agree  with 
all  his  colleagues.  But  on  one  point  he  and  all  the 
greatest  of  the  wise  men  are  agreed — there  are  no 
breaks  in  the  consistency  of  the  world.  There  is  a 
place,  we  are  told  in  Proverbs  (xvi.,  4),  even  for  the 
*  Job  xxviii.,  20-23.  +  See  p.  150.  \  Job  xxviii.,  28. 


154  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


wicked  in  God’s  scheme  of  things,  and  there  must 
be  a  fundamental  harmony  between  nature  and 
morality.  To  thoughtful  Jewish  theists  God  re¬ 
vealed  Himself  as  the  All-wise.  There  never  was  a 
time  when  the  divine  Wisdom  was  not.  There  was 
never  any  combat  (such  as  the  dialogues  in  Job  ap¬ 
pear  to  presuppose)  between  Jehovah  and  the  dragon 
of  chaos* ;  on  chaos  the  eulogist  of  Wisdom  is  elo¬ 
quently  silent.  Nor  can  he  admit  the  idea  of  an 
arbitrary  omnipotence.  “  God,”  as  Hooker,  sur- 
named  the  Judicious,  said,  “is  a  law  to  Himself”; 
“His  wisdom  hath  stinted  the  effects  of  His  power.” 
And  so  potent,  so  full  of  vitality,  is  this  wise  and 
beneficent  law,  that  it  is  impossible  to  an  Oriental 
thinker  to  regard  it  otherwise  than  as  a  person.  And 
what  a  person!  Work  is  to  Himf  a  pastime;  the 
elaboration  of  the  world  not  a  six-days’  occupation 
but  a  continual  and  exquisite  delight ;  the  Creator 
needs  no  Sabbath  rest,  for  He  cannot  be  fatigued. 
Why,  here  is  the  saying  so  finely  devised  for  the  in¬ 
carnate  Logos  in  the  spiritual  Gospel,  “  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work.”  \  The  universe  is,  as 

*  The  descriptions  of  Behemoth  and  Leviathan  (on  which  see  Ex¬ 
positor,  July,  1897,  or  Encyclopedia  Biblica)  form  no  part  of  the 
true  Speeches  of  Jehovah.  The  author  of  the  dialogues  does,  how¬ 
ever,  refer  to  the  chaos-dragon,  called  Leviathan. 

fit  is,  of  course,  accidental  that  “Wisdom  ”  is  personified  as  a 
woman  (the  Hebrew  word  for  wisdom  being  feminine). 

%  John  v.,  17. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


155 


Emerson  has  expressed  it,  a  “  divine  improvisation  ” ; 
its  architect  is  the  “  Eternal  Child.”  Surely  this  is 
one  of  the  very  finest  conceptions  in  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment.  It  stands  there  quite  alone  ;  but  not  less 
unique  is  more  than  one  conception  in  the  spiritual 
Gospel  in  the  New  Testament.  The  ideal  thus  ex¬ 
pressed  cannot  safely  be  disregarded  by  those  who 
would  have  a  joyous  as  well  as  a  deeply  thoughtful 
religion. 

And  now  we  have  to  ask,  What  other  forms  of 
thought  are  most  nearly  related  to  this  strange  new 
conception  of  the  divine  Wisdom  ?  The  inquisitive 
spirit  for  which  the  varied  scenes  of  human  life  are 
too  narrow  a  field  is  the  same  which  pervades  the 
celestial  physics  of  the  Book  of  Enoch ;  it  has  found 
an  imaginative  (mythological)  expression  in  the  story 
of  Enoch,*  who  was  instructed  by  the  angels  in  the 
secrets  of  the  tripartite  universe.  Allusions  to  this 
story  in  its  earlier  form  occur  in  Genesis  v.,  21-24, 
and  again  in  a  prophecy  of  Ezekiel  (xxviii.,  3),  who 
says,  addressing  the  Prince  of  Tyre: 

“  Forsooth,  thou  art  wiser  than  Enoch  ;  there  is  no 
secret  that  can  be  hidden  from  thee.” 

I  ought  to  explain  that  this  rendering  presupposes  a 
necessary  and  easy  correction  of  the  text.  Anyone 

*  See  article  “Enoch”  in  Messrs.  A.  &  C.  Black’s  Encyclopedia 
Biblica. 


156  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


can  see  that  the  expression  “wiser  than  Daniel”  is 
most  improbable  in  this  connection  and  in  Ezekiel’s 
period.  On  the  other  hand,  this  prophet  must  have 
known  of  Enoch  as  an  explorer  of  secrets,  and  the 
tradition  which  had  reached  him  was  doubtless  con¬ 
nected  with  some  report  of  the  natural  philosophy 
of  the  Babylonians.  It  is  true,  the  authors  of  the 
Book  of  Enoch  far  outrun  Ezekiel,  but  so  does  the 
description  of  the  divine  Wisdom  in  parts  of  Prov¬ 
erbs  and  Job  far  surpass  the  meagre  hints  given  by 
the  Second  Isaiah.* 

But  we  must  look  farther  afield  for  affinities  to  the 
personified  divine  Wisdom.  Some  scholars  will,  I 
know,  object  to  this.  They  are  of  opinion  that 
nearly  all  the  strange  new  developments  of  the  post- 
exilic  period  can  be  explained  as  native  Jewish 
growths,  and  they  think  that  this  view  harmonises 
best  with  the  self-isolating  tendency  of  the  age  of 
Ezra.  This  is,  I  think,  a  great  mistake.  The  laws 
of  the  human  mind  fought  against  the  self-isolating 
tendency  which  these  scholars  refer  to.  Oriental 
influences  of  all  kinds  made  themselves  felt,  first  of 
all  by  the  people,  and  then  by  its  religious  guides. 
More  especially  in  the  Greek  period,  to  which  the 
Prologue  of  Proverbs  certainly,  or  almost  certainly, 
belongs,  there  was  a  fertilisation  of  the  intellectual 

*  Isa.  xl.,  13,  14. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


157 


soil  by  new  ideas  throughout  the  Jewish  world. 
Many  Jews  migrated  to  Egypt,  especially  to  Alex¬ 
andria,  and  we  know  that  in  ancient  Egypt  the 
personification  of  divine  attributes  was  carried  to  a 
great  extent.*  It  is  a  false  assumption  that  ancient 
Egyptian  ideas  could  not  influence  Greek  and  Jewish 
society  in  Alexandria.  Persian  influences,  too,  were 
still  more  strongly  felt  by  the  Jews  after  the  con¬ 
quests  of  Alexander.  In  the  present  state  of  the 
history  of  Zoroastrianism  some  reserve  seems  called 
for,  but  it  is  reasonable  to  hold  that  the  stress  laid  in 
Zoroastrianism  on  wisdom  as  the  chief  divine  attri¬ 
bute,  and  on  the  distinction  between  the  heavenly 
wisdom  f  and  that  “  acquired  by  the  ear,”  had  some 
effect  on  the  Jews,  though  it  would  immediately 
affect  only  those  Jews  who  lived  in  or  near  Persia. 
I  am  not  so  bold  as  to  assume  that  the  conception 
of  the  heavenly  wisdom  which  was  the  earliest  of 
Ahura-Mazda’s  creations  was  taken  over  directly  and 
adapted  by  the  author  of  the  Prologue  of  Proverbs, 
and  simply  hold  that  the  more  advanced  religious 
philosophy  of  Zoroastrianism  stimulated  the  growth 
of  a  new  Jewish  religious  philosophy,  which  centred 
in  the  belief  in  an  all-wise  and  therefore  not,  strictly 

♦Wiedemann,  Gesch.  Aeg .,  p.  53;  cf.  Brimmer,  Three  Essays , 
etc.,  p.  29. 

f  See  Zendavesta  by  Darmesteter  and  Mills  (Sacred  Books  of  the 
East)  and  cf.  Cheyne,  Expositor ,  v.  (1892),  78,  79. 


158  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


speaking,  all-powerful  Being,  the  Creator  and  Gov¬ 
ernor  of  the  world  of  nature  and  of  man.  To  assume 
Platonic  and  Stoic  influences  seems  to  me  both 
unnecessary  and  unsafe. 

Here  I  might  pause,  but  can  I  be  expected  to 
leave  untouched  the  true  Book  of  Job  to  which  the 
two  beautiful  poems  from  which  I  have  quoted  form 
appendices  ?  And  how  could  I  let  the  patriarch 
Enoch  be  separated  from  the  patriarch  Job — the  one 
the  representative  of  physical,  the  other  of  moral 
philosophy?  The  former  came  into  his  full  inherit¬ 
ance  long  after  the  latter.  Obviously  the  life  of 
Enoch  did  not  at  first  take  much  hold  on  thoughtful 
Jews.  That  after  365  years  God  could  no  longer 
spare  such  a  pious  and  large-minded  man,  but  took 
him  into  His  immediate  presence — this  early  de¬ 
parture  of  Enoch,  in  spite  of  its  extraordinary 
circumstances,  and  however  much  it  stimulated 
speculation,  did  not  touch  the  heart.  But  the  story 
of  Job,  who  fell  from  the  height  of  happiness  to  the 
lowest  depth  of  misery,  losing  not  only  his  property, 
but  his  children,  and  being  himself  afflicted  with  the 
worst  sort  of  leprosy,  but  who,  to  the  universal 
astonishment,  was  restored  by  God  to  health  and 
happiness,  suggested  countless  thoughts  of  the 
deepest  human  interest. 

Ezekiel,  as  we  have  seen,  mentions  Enoch  in  one 


Jewish  Wisdom 


159 


place  as  the  privileged  possessor  of  superhuman 
wisdom.  In  another  famous  passage  (Ezek.  xiv.,  14) 
he  couples  him  with  Noah  and  J ob  as  an  exceptionally 
righteous  man,  for  the  collocation  “  Noah,  Daniel,  and 
Job”  is  self-evidently  wrong.  There  is  no  evidence 
that  he  perceived  that  greater  suggestiveness  in  the 
story  of  Job  of  which  I  have  spoken,  and  this  blind¬ 
ness  is  not  a  feature  in  Ezekiel  which  draws  us  to  the 
austere  prophet.  What  was  it  that  at  last  opened 
men’s  eyes?  It  was  the  continued  disappointments 
of  what  is  commonly  called  the  post-exilic  period. 
Post-exilic,  indeed !  Why,  the  Exile  of  Israel,  in  its 
deepest  sense,*  has  lasted  from  Nebuchadrezzar’s 
burning  of  Jerusalem  to  the  present  day.  It  is  this 
that  makes  the  Jews  such  idealists;  it  is  this  sense 
of  exile  which  inspired  that  unknown  “  post-exilic  ” 
poet  who  gave  the  first  adequate  setting  to  the  old 
Hebrew  legend  of  Job  the  patient. 

The  Prologue  (chaps,  i.  and  ii.)  and  the  Epilogue 
(xlii.,  7-17)  of  the  poem  are  both  due  to  this  writer. 
The  former  is  full  of  delicate  psychology  and  inimit¬ 
able  humour  ;  the  latter,  which  begins  : 

“  And  Jehovah  said  to  Eliphaz  the  Temanite,  My  wrath 
is  kindled  against  thee  and  thy  two  friends,  because  ye 
have  not  spoken  of  Me  that  which  is  right,  as  My  servant 
Job  has,” 

*  “  In  its  deepest  sense,”  cf.  Lecture  I.,  p.  12,  “If  there  was  a 
post-exilic  age  at  all.” 


160  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


and  ends  with  the  statement  that  Job  died  having 
had  his  fill  of  life,  is  dry  and  prosaic,*  and  even  mor¬ 
ally,  to  us  at  least,  disappointing.  It  was  Job’s  high 
destiny,  as  we  shall  see,  to  “  serve  God  for  nought,” 
and  by  having  a  tangible  reward,  as  it  were,  forced 
upon  him,  he  seems  to  us  to  be  lowered  in  the  moral 
scale.  But  to  do  justice  to  the  writer  we  have  to  view 
him  here  not  as  an  artist,  but  as  a  teacher.  He  cares 
for  his  people  much  more  than  for  Job,  and  since 
a  double  compensation  for  Israel’s  calamities  is  a 
constant  element  in  the  later  prophetic  teaching,  he 
feels  bound  to  represent  Job  as  having  been  amply 
compensated  for  his  unmerited  misfortunes.  The 
chief  value  of  the  Epilogue  is,  that  it  enables  us  to 
reconstruct  the  main  outlines  of  the  omitted  portion 
of  the  story.  Thanks  to  it  we  are  able,  in  some 
sense,  to  “  call  up  him  who  left  half  told  ”  (or  whose 
editors  have  transmitted  to  us  half  told,  or  told 
amiss)  the  story  of  the  most  patient  of  men. 

The  result  of  an  inquiry  would  probably  be  f  that 
in  lieu  of  Job  iii.-xlii.,  7,  there  stood  originally  some¬ 
thing  like  this,  only  in  a  style  of  flowing,  natural 
eloquence  : 

*  Drs.  Bartlett  and  Peters  have  from  a  literary  point  of  view  done 
well  to  omit  the  Epilogue  in  their  excellent  arrangement  of  select 
passages  from  the  Bible  {Scriptures ,  Hebrew  and  Christian,  part  vi., 
chap.  v.). 

t  So  first  Macdonald,  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,  1895,  pp.  63-71. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


161 


“  And  these  three  men,  moved  at  the  sight  of  Job’s 
grief,  broke  out  into  lamentations,  and  withheld  not  pas¬ 
sionate  complaints  of  the  injustice  of  God.  They  said  : 
Is  there  knowledge  in  the  Most  High  ?  and  does  God 
judge  righteous  judgment  ?  But  Job  was  sore  dis¬ 
pleased,  and  reproved  them,  saying,  Bitter  is  the  pain 
which  racks  me,  but  more  bitter  still  are  the  words  which 
ye  speak.  Blessed  be  the  Most  High  for  that  which  He 
gave,  and  now  that  I  am  empty,  blessed  still  be  His 
name.  I  will  call  unto  Him  and  say,  Shew  me  wherein 
I  have  erred  ;  let  me  not  depart  under  the  weight  of 
Thine  anger.  For  God  is  good  to  all  those  who  call  upon 
Him,  and  will  not  suffer  the  righteous  to  fall  for  ever. 
And  Job  reasoned  ofttimes  with  his  friends,  and  bade 
them  repent,  lest  God  should  deal  with  them  as  with 
trangressors.  And  at  the  end  of  a  season,  God  came  to 
Eliphaz  in  a  dream  and  said,  My  wrath  is  kindled  against 
thee  and  thy  two  friends,  because  ye  have  not  spoken  of 
Me  that  which  is  right,  as  My  servant  Job  has.” 

This,  as  it  seems  to  me,  is  in  harmony  with  the 
early  view  of  Job  as  a  perfectly  righteous  man — a 
second  Abraham  or  Noah.  It  will  account,  too,  for 
the  severe  blame  which  Jehovah  gives  to  the  three 
friends,  and  their  liability  to  some  mysterious  pun¬ 
ishment  from  which  they  can  only  be  delivered  by 
Job’s  intercession.  Also  for  the  high  praise  awarded 
to  Job,  who,  as  the  poem  now  stands,  certainly  did 
not  speak  in  all  points  rightly  concerning  God.  Also 
for  the  expressions  of  another  important  work  which 
appears  to  be  based  on  the  original  Book  of  Job, — 

ii 


1 62  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


I  refer  to  the  description  of  the  suffering  Servant  of 
Jehovah  in  Isaiah  lii.,  13-liii.,  12. 

This  noble  description  of  the  great  Martyr,  which 
has  already  enchanted  us,*  is  in  fact  largely  modelled 
on  the  original  Book  of  Job.  Reflecting  on  the 
cause  of  Job’s  misery,  the  writer  came  to  the  conclu¬ 
sion  that  God  must  have  appointed  this  for  the 
good  of  those  who,  unlike  Job,  were  great  transgress¬ 
ors,  and  that  Job’s  consciousness  of  this  must  have 
helped  him  to  bear  his  sufferings  uncomplainingly. 
Such  at  any  rate  was  his  view  respecting  his  own 
hero,  the  Servant  of  Jehovah.  He  does  not  deny 
that  the  Servant  looked  forward  to  his  ultimate  jus¬ 
tification  in  public,  but  he  evidently  thinks  that  the 
really  influential  motive  with  the  Servant  was  his 
ability  through  his  sufferings  to  redeem  his  people 
from  sin.f  His  hero  does  in  fact  serve  God  for 
nought.  And  this  is  certainly  what  the  original 
poet  of  Job  represented  as  the  divine  object  in  per¬ 
mitting  the  calamities  which  beset  Job,  viz.,  the 
demonstration  by  facts  of  the  possibility  of  disinter¬ 
ested  piety.  It  would  be  pleasant  to  think  that  the 
two  writers  were  friends.  We  may  at  least  conject¬ 
ure  that  they  were  contemporaries,  and  that  the 
writer  of  this  Book  of  Job  accepted  the  description 

*  See  Lecture  III. 

•f  See  Isa.  liii.,  io,  11,  in  Polychrome  Bible. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


163 

of  Jehovah’s  Servant  as  a  kind  of  commentary  on 
his  own  work. 

Both  these  writers,  I  incline  to  think,  lived  after 
the  introduction  of  Ezra’s  law-book  ;  both  are,  at  any 
rate,  warmly  attached  to  all  existing  religious  institu¬ 
tions.  Job  is  represented  as  an  undoubting  believer 
in  sacrifices,  and  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  as  commis¬ 
sioned  to  bring  the  true  law  of  life  to  the  nations. 
Neither  of  them  can  be  moved  from  his  rock-like 
faith  in  God  by  external  privations.  But  by  far  the 
greater  number  of  the  Jews  were  incapable  of  this 
lofty  piety.  It  was  a  fundamental  tenet  of  the 
old  Israelitish  religion  that  all  suffering  was  caused 
by  some  known  or  unknown  offence  against  God, 
and  the  most  that  the  ancient  pre-exilic  prophets 
could  do  was  to  stimulate  men’s  consciences  to  dis¬ 
cover  those  sins  which,  unrepented  of,  would  bring 
great  and  deserved  calamities  on  the  community.  It 
is  true,  they  also  preached  the  converse  of  this  doc¬ 
trine,  viz.,  that  by  obeying  the  commands  of  God 
the  community  might  ensure  for  itself  His  fa¬ 
vour  and  protection.  Morally,  this  preaching  was  of 
high  value,  even  though  it  had  little  effect  on 
the  majority  of  its  hearers.  Its  principal  achieve¬ 
ment  was  the  production  of  the  Book  of  Deuter¬ 
onomy,  which  combines  with  a  most  thoughtful 
code  of  laws  the  oft-repeated  assurance  that 


1 64  J  ewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


obedience  to  Jehovah’s  precepts  will  be  rewarded  by 
prosperity,  and  deliberate  disobedience  punished  by 
adversity  and  ruin.  But  again  and  again  events 
occurred  to  falsify  these  assurances.  The  national 
adoption  of  Deuteronomy  (in  its  original,  simpler 
form)  was  followed  by  the  disaster  of  Megiddo,  and 
ultimately  by  the  Captivities,  and  the  introduction 
of  Ezra’s  law-book  was  only  an  event  in  the  domestic 
history  of  the  Jews.  On  Nehemiah’s  departure,  the 
rule  of  the  Persians  became  less  and  less  considerate, 
and  the  social  abuses  from  which  the  community 
had  always  suffered  so  greatly,  even  if  they  were 
checked  for  a  time,  soon  took  a  new  lease  of  life. 
And,  hence,  that  happy  serenity  which  marks  both 
Job  (the  original  Job)  and  the  Servant  of  Jehovah 
became  as  good  as  impossible.  A  Hebrew  Pascal, 
the  author  of  Psalm  lxxiii.,  though  he  enriched 
theists  with  the  noblest  extant  expression  (to  which 
I  shall  return*)  of  disinterested  love  to  God,  yet  had 
to  pass  through  a  grievous  experience  of  scepticism, 
and  we  need  not  therefore  be  surprised  that  one  of 
the  wise  men  of  the  close  of  the  Persian,  or  more 
probably  of  the  beginning  of  the  Greek,  period  found 
the  treatment  of  Job’s  sufferings  by  the  original 
narrator  inadequate  for  practical  uses. 

To  this  new  writer  it  did  not  seem  credible  that 

*  See  Lecture  VI. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


i^5 

Job  should  have  been  unvisited  by  doubts  respect¬ 
ing  God’s  righteousness.  Job,  as  the  original  story 
implied,  was  a  symbol  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  even 
the  best  of  the  Jews  had  moments  of  painful  scepti¬ 
cism,  which  it  was  as  much  as  they  could  do  to 
repress.  Would  not  the  Book  of  Job  be  more  useful 
to  the  community  if  its  hero  were  brought  more  into 
sympathy  with  ordinary  Jewish  feeling?  In  this 
way  the  patient  Job  became  impatient.  There  was 
also  another  reason  why  this  writer  thought  of  alter¬ 
ing  the  original  conception  of  J ob.  He  was  evidently 
a  cultivated  man  who  had  caught  the  “  still  sad  music 
of  humanity”  in  many  walks  of  life.  His  interests 
were  not  confined  to  Judaea,  and  so,  under  his  hands, 
Job  became  a  symbol,  not  only  of  the  Jewish  people, 
but  of  humanity  at  large.  Nor  can  one  help  seeing 
that  this  new  writer  was  more  of  an  individualist 
than  his  predecessor,  i.  e.,  that  he  recognised  the 
moral  and  religious  rights  of  the  individual  as  such, 
apart  from  the  people  to  which  he  belonged.  In  the 
olden  time,  even  a  good  man  would  not  have  ex¬ 
pected  to  be  as  a  matter  of  course  prosperous,  if  he 
were  a  mere  isolated  unit  in  a  community  of 
bad  men.  But  since  Ezekiel  had  preached  the  doc¬ 
trine  that  the  son  did  not  bear  the  iniquity  of  the 
father,  nor  the  father  the  iniquity  of  the  son,  the  old 
sense  of  solidarity  began  to  give  place  to  a  new  sense 


1 66  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


of  the  moral  rights  of  the  individual.  The  author  of 
Job  had,  as  I  take  it,  learned  to  suffer  and  to  sympa¬ 
thise  with  individuals.  And  the  problem  which  pre¬ 
sented  itself  to  him  was  not  merely,  “  Why  does 
righteous  Israel  suffer?  ”  but,“  Why  do  righteous  men 
everywhere  suffer  unjustly,  and  why,  even  if  some 
punishment  be  deserved,  is  it  so  often  disproportion¬ 
ate  to  the  presumed  moral  cause  ?  ” 

The  consequence  was  that  the  roles  of  Job  and  his 
friends  were  to  some  extent  transposed.  It  was  no 
longer,  as  in  the  original  book,  the  three  friends  who 
spoke  irreverently  of  the  Most  High,  but  Job  him¬ 
self.  It  is  true,  Job’s  hard  speeches  were  drawn 
from  him  under  extreme  provocation,  and  are  not  to 
be  interpreted  in  a  cold,  logical  spirit.  And  strangely 
enough,  to  this  bold  Hebrew  Prometheus  comes  at 
length  a  reconciling  intuition  of  what  may  almost  be 
called  an  Over-god,  i.  e.y  of  a  God  who  loves  and  can 
be  loved  behind  the  God  of  pitiless  and  undiscrimi¬ 
nating  force.  And  this  flash  of  insight  comes  to 
him  (so  the  poet  imagines,  in  accordance,  doubtless, 
with  his  own  experience)  just  when  all  earthly  com¬ 
fort  appears  to  be  denied  him.  At  first,  God  seems 
deaf  to  his  cry,  and  he  turns  for  comfort  to  his 
friends.  But  the  friends,  under  the  chilling  influence 
of  the  traditional  doctrine  of  retribution,  are  driven 
to  withhold  sympathy  from  such  a  great  sinner  as 


Jewish  Wisdom 


167 


they  assume  Job  to  be.  Then,  as  the  language  of 
the  friends  becomes  more  violent,  that  of  Job  be¬ 
comes  calmer  and  more  dignified.  He  begins  to 
recognise  what  appears  like  a  dual  aspect  in  God. 
From  the  God  of  force,  whom  he  sees  in  the  count¬ 
less  sad  phenomena  of  the  world,  he  appeals  to  a 
God  of  love  and  sympathy,  who  is  in  heaven,  and 
he  becomes  convinced  that  God  will  in  some  way  do 
him  justice.  Almost  he  can  believe  that  God  will  at 
length  recall  him  from  the  nether  world  to  which  he 
is  hastening  ;  but  he  quickly  dismisses  the  too  seduc¬ 
ing  thought.  This  splendid  passage  I  hope  to  quote 
later.  But  even  if  he  be  condemned  by  the  strict 
laws  of  life  and  death  to  a  perpetual  imprisonment 
in  Sheol,  yet  a  divine  testimony  to  his  innocence  is 
not  impossible. 

“  O  earth,  cover  not  my  blood, 

And  let  my  cry  find  no  resting-place 

i.  e.,  let  not  the  earth  absorb  my  unjustly  shed  blood, 
but,  like  Abel’s,  let  it  cry  aloud  for  satisfaction.  For, 
he  continues : 

“  Even  now,  surely,  my  witness  is  in  heaven, 

And  He  that  vouches  for  me  is  on  high. 

My  flesh  is  athirst  for  God, 

Towards  Eloah  mine  eye  drops  tears, 

That  he  would  arbitrate  for  a  man  contending  with  God, 
And  between  a  mortal  and  his  (divine)  friend.”  * 

*  Job  xvi.,  18-21.  (See  J.  Q.  A\,  Oct.,  1897,  pp.  14,  15.) 


i6 8  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Later  on,  he  expresses  the  same  assured  hope,  and 
this  time  he  connects  it  with  the  punishment  of  his 
friends.  Bildad  has  just  been  forgetting  himself  so 
far  as  virtually  to  class  Job  with  the  wicked  who 
know  not  God.  This  speech  it  is  which  brings 
on  a  crisis  in  Job’s  inward  development.  No  longer 
can  he  tolerate  the  platitudes  of  his  friends,  which  as 
applied  to  him  are  so  cruelly  unjust.  He  makes  one 
more  appeal,  however,  to  their  better  feelings  : 

“  Have  pity  upon  me,  have  pity  upon  me,  O  my  friends, 
For  the  hand  of  God  has  touched  me. 

Why  do  ye  persecute  me — like  God, 

And  are  never  satiated  with  my  flesh  ?  ”  * 

But  he  sees  by  their  looks  that  his  words  fall  idly 
on  their  ears.  He  longs  that  his  words  might  be 
recorded  in  some  permanent  form — the  words,  that 
is,  in  which  he  asserts  his  innocence.  But  no  sooner 
has  he  said  this,  than  he  bethinks  himself  of  a  far 
better  justification  which  awaits  him.  It  is  the  same 
idea  of  the  divine  Witness  which  we  have  already 
met  with.  But  this  time  Job  connects  the  idea  with 
the  punishment  of  his  cruel  friends.  His  appeal  is  not 
from  the  God  of  force  to  the  God  of  love;  for  he  is 
able  by  a  new  moral  effort  to  reject  once  and  for 
all  the  notion  of  a  divided  God.  What  he  now  de- 


*  Job  xix.,  21,  22. 


Jewish  Wisdom 


169 


sires  is  simply  the  vindication  of  his  innocence,  and 
the  punishment  of  his  cruel  persecutors.  He  does 
not,  indeed,  understand  God’s  treatment  of  him,  but 
he  no  longer  accuses  God  of  injustice.  It  is  his 
friends  who  are  unjust,  and  they  must  be  punished 
that  his  own  justification  may  be  complete: 

“  But  I  know  that  my  Avenger  lives, 

And  that  at  last  He  will  appear  above  my  grave; 
My  Witness  shall  bring  to  pass  my  desire, 

And  a  curse  will  take  hold  of  my  foes. 

“  My  inner  man  is  consumed  with  longing, 

For  ye  say,  How  (keenly)  will  we  persecute  him  ! 
Have  terror  because  of  the  sword, 

For  (God’s)  anger  falls  on  the  unjust.”  * 

The  crisis  is  past.  Job’s  intellectual  perplexity 
remains,  but  he  does  not  doubt  the  existence  of  a 
moral  God,  though  he  cannot  detect  His  operation  : 

“  I  may  go  forward,  but  He  is  not  there; 

And  backward,  but  I  cannot  perceive  Him.”  f 

The  friends,  however,  have  learned  nothing,  and 
after  hearing  Job’s  reply  to  the  third  speech  of 
Zophar — a  reply  which  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  preserved — we  may  presume  that  the  earlier 
work;):  recorded  the  departure  of  Job’s  false  friends. 

*  Job  xix.,  25-29.  (See  the  article  in  J.  Q.  R.  already  referred  to.) 

f  Job,  xxiii.,  8. 

\  I.  <?. ,  that  form  of  the  poem  which  was  intermediate  between  the 
original  Book  of  Job  and  the  book  in  its  present  form. 


170  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


All  that  remained  was  to  provide  a  suitable  close  for 
this  great  drama — a  close  which,  if  it  settled  nothing, 
should  yet  affirm  once  more  that  to  be  a  sufferer  was 
no  proof  of  guilt.  The  poet’s  instinct  guided  him 
aright.  He  begins  by  charming  us  with  a  plaintive 
retrospect,  by  which  Job  seeks  to  cleanse  his  spirit 
from  the  bitterness  of  controversy  (chaps,  xxix., 

xxx. ).  Oh  that  those  delicious  days  could  be  re¬ 
called,  when  the  Almighty  was  his  friend,  and  his 
children  were  about  him  !  Then  all  at  once  he  glides 
into  a  grand  affirmation  of  his  innocence  (chap. 

xxxi. ),  which  is  one  of  the  finest  summaries  of  early 
Jewish  morality,  and  finally  passes  from  the  scene 
with  a  marvellous  piece  of  moral  self-assertion  which 
is  nearly  the  most  un-Hebraic  passage  in  the  whole 
of  the  Old  Testament. 

It  was  a  truly  noble  specimen  of  didactic  poetry, 
suffused  with  emotion,  that  this  new  poet  produced. 
The  problem  of  the  cause  of  the  suffering  of  the 
innocent  was  too  big  for  him,  but  he  set  forth  to  the 
best  advantage  all  the  conflicting  views  of  moralists 
known  to  him.  He  had  at  any  rate  succeeded  (so 
he  must  have  thought)  in  subverting  the  pernicious 
doctrine  that  from  great  sufferings  we  can  argue  the 
existence  of  great  guilt.  And  he  had  represented  Job 
as  arriving  finally  at  a  state  of  resignation  and  of  so 
much  peace  as  was  compatible  with  extreme  perplex- 


Jewish  Wisdom 


1 7i 


ity  on  the  intellectual  question  at  issue.  But  he  did 
not  satisfy  his  fellow-philosophers  any  better  than  his 
predecessor  had  satisfied  him.  Various  passages 
were  inserted  by  later  writers  (for  it  is  unnatural 
to  suppose  that  the  author  was  himself  always  chang¬ 
ing),  with  the  view  of  qualifying  or  counteracting 
parts  of  his  work.  These  are  of  unequal  value.  The 
speeches  of  the  youthful  Elihu  are  inexpressibly 
poor,  though  not  without  value  as  a  record  of  an  age 
of  intellectual  decline.  But  I  cannot  help  eulogising 
once  more  the  noble  Praise  of  Wisdom  in  chap, 
xxviii. — apart  from  the  closing  verse,  which  has  con¬ 
verted  it  into  a  condemnation  of  free  discussion. 
Nor  can  I  refuse  a  still  larger  tribute  of  praise  to 
the  Speeches  of  Jehovah,  which  at  first  sight  seem 
much  too  fine  to  be  a  later  insertion.  I  am  myself 
most  willing  to  be  convinced  that  the  author  of 
the  Dialogues  of  the  Friends  had  become  discon¬ 
tented  with  his  work,  and  appended  the  Speeches 
of  Jehovah  as  a  palinode.  A  purely  literary 
critic  can  hardly  help  indulging  in  such  a  con¬ 
jecture,  but  I  fear  that  the  canons  of  scientific  criti¬ 
cism  require  us  to  reject  it.  The  only  safe  view  is, 
in  my  opinion,  that  some  great  poet — who  thought 
the  earlier  Book  of  Job  religiously  imperfect — at¬ 
tached  this  appendix.  The  idea  of  the  section  is, 
that  a  minute  criticism  of  the  divine  government 


172  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


(like  that  of  Job)  is  as  useless  as  contemplation  of 
the  wonders  of  nature  is  profitable.  Job  has  to  learn 
to  forget  himself  in  the  glorious  creation  of  which  he 
forms  a  part.  It  is  true,  this  is  not  directly  stated. 
All  that  the  poet  says,  by  the  mouth  of  Jehovah,  is 
that  Job  had  darkened  the  plan  of  the  divine  gov¬ 
ernment  by  words  devoid  of  insight  (xxxviii.,  2). 
The  evident  delight,  however,  which  the  poet  takes 
in  the  pictures  of  creation  justifies  us  in  supposing 
that  he  recommends  the  contemplation  of  nature  as  a 
remedy  against  painful  and  futile  scepticism.  What¬ 
ever  we  may  think  of  his  attitude  towards  free 
thought,  he  has  given  us  a  splendid  literary  record 
of  one  of  the  early  stages  of  the  love  of  the  higher 
Wisdom  among  the  Jews,  and  we  may  be  thankful 
that  it  has  found  so  prominent  and  honourable  a 
place  in  the  Biblical  Literature. 


LECTURE  V. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom ;  Contem¬ 
porary  Levitical  Piety. 

IT  will  hardly  be  denied  that  Jewish  religion 
owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  Babylon  and  Persia. 
Not  only  a  wholesome  religious  stimulus,  but  some 
easily  assimilated  ideas  and  beliefs  came  to  it  from 
these  sources.  I  am  afraid  that  we  cannot  speak  as 
favourably  of  the  first  contact  between  Jewish  and 
Greek  thought.  A  most  uncongenial  spirit  of  doubt 
now  begins  to  be  traceable  in  Judaism.  The  Book 
of  Proverbs  itself — that  carefully  prepared  hand¬ 
book  of  popular  religious  instruction — contains  at 
least  one  passage  (Prov.  xxx.,  2-4)  directly  anti¬ 
thetical  to  the  devout  eulogy  of  Wisdom  in  Prov. 
viii.  Here  is  this  unique  sceptical  poem.  It  takes 
us  back  to  a  time  before  any  product  of  the  Wisdom- 
Literature  was  a  holy  Scripture,  and  the  remarkable 
thing  is  that  it  has  been  interwoven  with  a  very  dif¬ 
ferent  passage,  which  has  the  nature  of  an  antidote. 
It  is  in  two  stanzas  of  six  lines  each,  and  this,  if  I 
read  it  correctly,  is  the  heading  prefixed  to  it :  “  The 


173 


174  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Words  of  Agur  ben  Jakeh  the  Poet.”  Whether 
this  is  the  author’s  real  name  or  a  pseudonym,  I 
cannot  tell. 

“  A  solemn  speech  of  the  man  whose  inquiry  was  for  God: 
I  have  inquired  for  God,  but  have  had  no  success. 

For  I  have  less  sense  than  other  men, 

And  there  is  in  me  no  human  understanding  ; 

Neither  have  I  learned  wisdom, 

So  that  I  might  obtain  the  knowledge  of  the  holy  ones. 

“  Who  can  go  up  to  heaven  and  come  down  ? 

Who  can  gather  the  wind  in  his  fists? 

Who  can  bind  the  waters  in  a  garment  ? 

Who  can  grasp  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  ? 

(Such  an  one  would  I  question  thus  about  God), 

What  is  His  name? 

And  what  is  the  name  of  His  sons,  if  thou  knowest  it  ?  ” 

Such  is  my  view  of  the  poem.  The  speaker  is  a 
Jew,  but  with  a  strong  dash  of  the  Greek  or  modern 
spirit.  He  is  a  prototype  of  Goethe’s  Faust.  You 
know  those  fine  lines  which  the  German  poet  puts 
into  the  mouth  of  his  hero,  and  which  Bayard  Taylor 
has  so  finely  translated  : 

“  Who  dare  express  Him  ? 

And  who  profess  Him  ? 

Saying,  ‘  I  believe  in  Him  !  * 

Who,  feeling,  seeing, 

Deny  His  being, 

Saying,  *  I  believe  Him  not  !  ’ 

The  All-enfolding, 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  175 


The  All-upholding, 

Folds  and  upholds  He  not 
Thee,  me,  Himself? 

Arches  not  then  the  sky  above  us? 

Lies  not  beneath  us,  firm,  the  earth  ? 

And  rise  not,  on  us  shining, 

Friendly,  the  everlasting  stars? 

•  •••••• 

I  have  no  name  to  give  it  ! 

Feeling  is  all  in  all  ; 

The  name  is  sound  and  smoke, 

Obscuring  Heaven's  clear  glow.”  * 

It  may  be  something  akin  to  this,  only  with  less  of 
sentiment  and  theory,  that  the  Hebrew  poet  means. 
He  has  heard  fine  things  said  about  God  as  the  Cre¬ 
ator  and  Governor  of  the  world  ;  and  various  names 
and  titles  have  been  given  to  this  great  Being, — 
Yahwe,  for  instance  (so  the  too  familiar  Jehovah 
should  be  corrected),  Adonai,  Elohim,  El  Shaddai, 
Yahwe  Sebaoth,  God  the  Mighty  One,  Shepherd  of 
Israel.  Which  of  these  is  the  right  name — the  name 
which  correctly  expresses  the  divine  nature  or  char¬ 
acter,  and  which  within  the  compass  of  a  few  letters 
sums  up  the  Infinite  One  ?  The  poet  has  also  heard, 
in  favourite  narratives  and  in  temple-hymns,  of  the 
“sons  of  God” — a  phrase  which  seems  to  him 
hardly  in  accordance  with  those  transcendental  views 
of  the  divine  nature  which  have  rightly  taken  the 

*  Goethe's  Faust ,  by  Bayard  Taylor,  i.,  191 f. 


176  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


place  of  the  naive  conceptions  of  antiquity.  Who 
are  those  sons  of  God  who  present  themselves  at 
stated  times  before  a  God  called  Yahwe,  and  what 
are  their  names  ?  A  favourite  narrative  declares  that 
one  of  them  is  called  “  the  Satan,”  i.  e .,  “  the  Adver¬ 
sary,”  and  another  document*  tells  us  of  seven 
chief  sons  of  God — Uriel,  Raphael,  Raguel,  Michael, 
Saraqael,  Gabriel.  Have  these  statements,  against 
which  a  thinking  man  might  find  something  to  urge, 
any  intellectual  cogency? 

This  inquisitive  thinker  describes  himself  as  one 
who  has  inquired  after  God.  If  he  could  only  find 
a  competent  authority,  he  would  apply  to  it  for  the 
solution  of  these  problems,  to  which  he  can  find  no 
clue  by  his  own  brain-work.  He  is  aware  that  there 
is  a  kind  of  wisdom,  or  theosophy,  which  promises 
to  give  men  the  knowledge  of  the  holy  or  heavenly 
ones.  But  can  this  wisdom  redeem  its  promises? 
Its  professors  indeed  talk  very  confidently.  One  of 
them,  in  captivating  verses,  has  described  the  pri¬ 
maeval  birth  of  Wisdom,  and  her  early  home  beside 
God.  But,  O  thou  accomplished  theosophist,  how 
didst  thou  attain  this  knowledge? 

“  Wast  thou  the  first  man  born  ? 

Wast  thou  brought  forth  before  the  hills  ? 

*  The  Book  of  Enoch  (see  Charles’s  translation).  The  Ethiopic 
text  gives  only  these  six  names  ;  a  Greek  version  adds  Remeiel. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  177 


Didst  thou  listen  in  the  council  of  God, 

And  (thence)  fetch  wisdom  unto  thee?”* 

For  clearly  no  ordinary  human  intellect  can  discover 
these  fine  things.  I,  the  poet,  may  have  less  sense 
than  other  men,  but,  even  were  it  otherwise,  unless 
I  could  go  up  to  heaven  and  come  down,  unless 
I  could  gather  the  wind  in  my  two  fists,  unless  I 
could  bind  the  waters  of  ocean  in  a  garment,  unless  I 
could  take  hold  of  all  the  ends  of  the  earth,  unless 
I  were  a  second  Enoch  and  could  claim  familiarity 
with  the  wise  “  holy  ones  ”  (i.  e.,  the  angels),  I  would 
not  assert  my  pretensions  to  have  found  wisdom. 

Are  you  surprised  at  this  scepticism  ?  Does  it  re¬ 
mind  you  of  the  Aryan  rather  than  of  the  Semitic 
mind?  And  are  you  not  strongly  inclined  to  apply 
a  little  scepticism  to  my  explanation  ?  But  can  you 
find  a  better  explanation  in  the  commentaries?  The 
older  books  all  assume  the  substantial  correctness  of 
the  opening  verse  in  the  received  text,  and  the  unity 
of  the  whole  of  the  thirtieth  chapter  of  Proverbs. 
These  assumptions  are  scarcely  tenable,  and  the  ex¬ 
planations  based  upon  them  are  much  more  strained 
than  mine,  and  leave  much  that  is  unexplained. 
That  you  should  be  surprised  at  this  Jewish  poet’s 

*  Job  xv.,  7,  8  ;  a  view  of  the  first  man,  which  differs  widely  from 
that  in  Gen.  ii.  He  is  nothing  less  than  wisdom  incarnate,  a  greater 
Enoch.  Cf.  Prov.  viii. ,  25. 

12 


178  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


scepticism  is  perfectly  natural.  But  you  must  re¬ 
member  that  we  are  now  in  the  Greek  period,  and  if 
in  the  Rig  Veda  we  find  such  an  expression  of  hon¬ 
est  scepticism  as  that  which  I  am  about  to  quote, 
why  should  we  be  surprised  that  the  same  character¬ 
istically  Aryan  spirit  should  have  spread  from  the 
conquering  Greeks  to  the  conquered  Jews?  “Who 
knows?”  says  the  unnamed  Sanscrit  poet, — 

“  Who  knows,  who  here  can  declare,  whence  has 
sprung — whence,  this  creation?  .  .  .  From  what  this 
creation  arose,  and  whether  (any  one)  made  it,  or  not, 
he  who  in  the  highest  heaven  is  its  ruler,  he  verily  knows, 
or  (even)  he  does  not  know.”  * 

At  a  later  period  (second  century  A.D.)  the  sceptical 
poet  Agur  might  seem  to  have  risen  from  the  dead 
in  the  person  of  Elisha  ben  Abuyah,  who  became 
such  a  deep  theosophist  that  he  fell  away  from  re¬ 
vealed  religion,!  or,  as  Jewish  writers  say,  pene¬ 
trated  into  Paradise,  and  destroyed  the  plants  which 
grow  there — a  delightful  figure,  is  it  not  ?  and  greatly 
to  be  preferred  to  more  abstract  phraseology.  The 
Rabbis  speak  with  pain  of  Elisha’s  apostacy,  and 
give  their  lost  leader  the  name  of  Acher,  “  a  stranger, 
one  who  is  not  of  us.” 

*  Muir,  Ancient  Sanscrit  Texts ,  v.,  356. 

f  We  are  informed  that  he  was  strengthened  in  his  irreligion  by 
observing  the  hard  trials  of  those  who  practised  the  Law,  and  who 
notwithstanding  rested  their  hopes  of  happiness  on  their  legal  right¬ 
eousness. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  179 


It  seems  almost  miraculous  that  this  strange 
sceptical  poem  of  Agur  should  have  been  safely 
conveyed  to  the  modern  world.  This  would  cer¬ 
tainly  not  have  occurred  but  for  the  pious  protest 
in  which  it  was  embalmed.  It  is  to  this  protest  of 
orthodoxy  that  I  now  ask  your  attention. 

The  writer  of  the  protest  begins  by  declaring  his 
faith  in  divine  revelation.  He  says: 

“  Every  saying  of  God  is  free  from  dross  ; 

He  is  a  shield  to  all  those  who  take  refuge  in  Him." 

That  is,  the  purest  wisdom  is  to  be  found  in  God's 
Book.  The  proof  of  this  is  the  protection  enjoyed 
by  those  who  trust  in  God.  Piety  and  its  rewards 
are,  it  is  implied,  confined  to  those  who  take  every 
statement  in  the  Bible  to  be  authoritative.  Then  he 
continues: 

“  See  thou  add  not  to  His  words, 

Lest  He  convict  thee  and  thou  be  proved  a  liar." 

That  is,  what  has  not  been  revealed  is  not  true. 
The  freethinker,  who  puts  the  title  “  solemn  speech  " 
at  the  head  of  his  poem  as  if  it  were  a  prophecy, 
will  have  to  suffer  some  calamity. 

‘‘Two  things  I  ask  of  Thee; 

Withhold  them  not  from  me,  before  I  die. 

Levity  and  the  speech  (of  folly 
And)  lying  do  Thou  put  far  from  me. 


180  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Be  my  lot  neither  poverty  nor  riches, 

Feed  me  with  the  bread  which  is  my  share; 

Else  if  I  were  full,  I  might  become  a  denier, 

And  say,  Who  is  Jehovah  ? 

Or  if  I  were  impoverished,  I  might  be  so  robbed  of  un¬ 
derstanding 

As  to  treat  profanely  the  name  of  my  God.”* 

These  two  petitions  are  in  reality  but  one.  It  is 
the  poet  Agur  to  whom  this  worthy  man  alludes — 
Agur,  who  had  professed  not  to  know  the  right  name 
of  God,  and  whom  the  orthodox  protester  may  per¬ 
haps  have  supposed  to  have  denied  that  there  was 
any  Being,  even  in  heaven,  who  could  bind  the  waters, 
and  gather  the  wind.  In  short,  the  champion  of 
orthodoxy  asks  that  he  may  not  become  like  Agur. 
He  sees  that  if  he  were  at  either  extreme  of  society 
he  might  be  tempted  to  deny  the  God  of  Israel,  for 
the  rich  man  appears  not  to  need  God,  and  the 
poor  man  seems  to  be  forsaken  by  Him.  He  there¬ 
fore  declines  riches— a  somewhat  remarkable  phenom¬ 
enon  ;  the  other  wise  men  are  obviously  far  enough 
from  doing  so.  It  is  true,  this  wise  man  is  partly 
influenced  by  a  wish  to  counteract  the  words  of 
Agur*  perhaps  if  put  to  the  test  he  might  have 
found  riches  not  wholly  undesirable. 

The  other  proverbial  poems  of  Agur,  contained  in 
the  same  chapter  of  Proverbs,  do  not  concern  us. 

*  Prov.  xxx.,  5-9. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  181 


It  is  enough  that  we  have  found  a  stray  specimen  of 
a  literature  of  scepticism.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  use 
this  expression,  for  such  a  poem  cannot  have 
stood  alone.  Homer  tells  us  indeed  that  there  was 
only  one  Thersites  in  the  Greek  army  before  Troy. 
Fortunate  Achilles  and  Agamemnon!  There  were 
certainly  not  a  few  Agurs  at  Jerusalem  from  the 
third  century  B.c.  onwards.  Evidence  of  this  is 
supplied  by  a  work  of  a  very  different  school — the 
Book  of  Enoch.  The  passage  which  I  shall  quote 
belongs  to  the  earliest  part  of  this  book : 

“  And  now  I  know  this  mystery,  that  many  sinners  will 
alter  and  pervert  the  words  of  uprightness,  and  will  speak 
wicked  words,  and  lie,  and  practise  great  deceits,  and 
write  books  concerning  their  words.”  * 

The  supposed  speaker  is  one  of  the  very  persons 
to  whom  Agur  probably  alludes  when  he  says, 
“  Who  has  gone  up  to  heaven  and  come  down?” — 
the  patriarch  Enoch.  But  his  words  are  those  of  a 
writer  of  the  age  of  John  Hyrcanus,  who  reigned 
from  135  to  105  B.C.  And  the  statement  is  con¬ 
firmed  by  the  editorial  appendix  to  one  of  the  latest 
writings  in  the  Old  Testament,  where  there  seems 
to  be  an  emphatic  caution  against  philosophical 
books  of  a  more  “  advanced  ”  character  than  those 

*  Enoch  civ.,  10  (Charles’s  ed.,  p.  299). 


1 82  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


sanctioned  in  the  Canon.  I  will  read  a  passage  from 
this  appendix  : 

“  The  words  of  the  wise  are  as  goads,  and  as  nails 
firmly  driven  in.  They  were  written  down  [/.  e.}  edited] 
by  framers  of  collections,  but  were  given  by  another 
teacher.*  And  as  to  all  besides  these,  my  son,  be  on  thy 
guard.  Of  making  many  books  there  is  no  end,  and  too 
much  reading  fatigues  the  body.”  f 

This  short,  condensed  style  is  in  the  manner  of  the 
later  Jewish  writers,  who  make  large  demands  on  the 
intelligence  of  their  readers.  The  passage  seems  to 
mean  this :  “  Sayings  of  wise  men,  like  those  in  Pro¬ 
verbs  and  Ecclesiastes,  are  highly  to  be  recommended, 
for  they  stimulate  the  mind  and  do  not  burden  the 
memory.  They  have  no  doubt  been  edited  by  au¬ 
thorised  persons,  but  they  were  originally  produced, 
in  each  case,  by  a  teacher  distinct  from  the  editors. 
They  may  be  read  with  confidence  ;  there  is  no  legiti¬ 
mate  requirement  which  they  do  not  satisfy.  But 
there  are  also  many  other  literary  products  in  circula¬ 
tion.  I  warn  my  disciples  to  be  on  their  guard  against 
these.  No  good,  but  much  useless  fatigue,  is  to  be 
got  from  reading  them.”  The  books  to  which  the 
epilogue  containing  these  cautions  is  attached  are 
Proverbs  (which  includes  the  fragments  of  the  poems 

*  This  view  of  the  text,  however,  is  only  probable. 

f  Eccles.  xii.,  n,  12. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  183 


of  Agur)  and  Ecclesiastes.  These  are  pronounced 
not  too  “  advanced  ”  for  faithful  Israelites  to  read. 

It  is  Ecclesiastes  which  now  beckons  us, — that 
most  singular  book  which  Heinrich  Heine  called  the 
Song  of  Songs  of  Scepticism,  and  Franz  Delitzsch, 
by  a  doubtful  correction,  the  Song  of  Songs  of  Reli¬ 
gion.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  do  justice  to  my  sub¬ 
ject  without  some  reference  to  Ecclesiastes,  though, 
unfortunately,  I  must  add  that  this  is  one  of  the  most 
difficult  books  to  comprehend  in  the  form  in  which  it 
has  come  down  to  us.  The  inconsistencies  which  the 
book  presents  are  much  more  startling  than  we  can 
readily  account  for  on  the  assumption  of  its  integrity. 
The  inconsistencies  of  Montaigne  are  those  of  an 
open  and  a  growing  mind ;  those  of  Ecclesiastes  are 
such  as  cannot  exist  together  in  a  rational  thinker.  I 
admit  that  very  similar  inconsistencies  exist  in  the 
Book  of  Job,  and  that  if  we  have  been  able  to  con¬ 
vince  ourselves  of  the  unity  of  the  Book  of  Job  we 
may  not  find  it  impossible  to  defend  the  integrity  of 
Ecclesiastes.  If,  however,  we  have  found  the  Book 
of  Job  to  be  a  monument,  not  of  one,  but  of  two  or 
three  conflicting  schools,  we  shall  be  prepared  to  find 
more  than  one  school  represented  in  Ecclesiastes,  and 
if  the  contents  of  Ecclesiastes,  apart  from  certain  per¬ 
fectly  orthodox  passages,  are  more  startling  than 
even  the  hardest  parts  of  Job,  we  shall  be  prepared 


184  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


to  find  that  still  more  violent  means  were  taken  to 
mitigate  the  shock  which  Ecclesiastes  gave  to  the 
reader.  Lastly,  if  in  later  times  both  Proverbs  and 
the  Song  of  Songs  were  ascribed  to  Solomon,  we 
shall  not  be  surprised  if,  after  the  Book  of  Ecclesi¬ 
astes  had  been  made  theologically  sound,  another 
late  writer  should  have  made  it  subservient  to  the 
legend  of  Solomon’s  repentance.  These  three  things 
have,  as  I  believe,  come  to  pass.  Ecclesiastes  has 
been  interpolated  in  an  orthodox  interest.*  Either 
accident  or  violence  has  almost  entirely  destroyed 
the  connection  ;  and  the  speaker,  Koheleth(our  Bible 
renders,  “the  Preacher”  ;  the  name  denotes  a  repre¬ 
sentative  of  the  class  of  public  preachers,  without 
reference  to  any  individual),  has  actually  been  iden¬ 
tified  with  Solomon — a  step  which  has  naturally 
involved  fresh  interpolations.  It  is  an  extremely  dif¬ 
ficult  task  to  recover  conjecturally  the  original  order 
of  the  sayings.  It  seems  to  me  as  if  passages  had 
been  omitted  as  well  as  inserted,  and  I  do  not  feel  at 
all  sure  that  Gustav  Bickell  in  his  restoration  has  not 
been  rather  too  anxious  to  produce  a  perfect  treatise 
of  Hebrew  philosophy.  According  to  this  Roman 

*  This  is  not  a  new  view.  The  objections  which  have  been  offered 
to  it  appear  to  the  present  writer  to  have  no  cogency.  To  discuss 
the  question  adequately  would  only  be  possible  in  a  commentary  on 
Ecclesiastes,  written  from  an  “  advanced”  critical  point  of  view,  in 
which  the  interpolations  would  be  pointed  out. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  185 


Catholic  scholar,  the  true  Ecclesiastes  is  a  carefully 
thought-out  answer  to  a  question  familiar  enough  to 
ourselves, — Is  life  worth  living?  He  makes  it  fall 
into  two  parts, — a  critical-speculative  and  a  practical- 
ethical  part,  the  former  showing  that  supposed  abso¬ 
lute  goods  (everything  which  a  man  has,  or  knows, 
or  can  do)  are  resultless  and  unsatisfying,  the  latter 
recommending,  as  at  least  relatively  good,  wisdom 
and  the  cheerful  enjoyment  of  life. 

It  would  hardly  be  safe  to  adopt  this  theory,  and 
the  more  so  as  another  reconstruction  may  soon  be 
hoped  for  from  America.*  All  that  I  lay  stress  upon 
is  the  great  probability  that  the  present  disorder  in 
the  contents  of  the  book  did  not  originally  exist. 
The  author  was  certainly,  considering  the  gloominess 
of  his  time,  not  a  contemptible  writer.  The  tact 
with  which  he  introduces  occasional  pieces  of  met¬ 
rical  verse  is  one  indication  of  this.  It  is  not  likely 
that  he  would  have  turned  out  so  unequal  a  piece  of 
work  as  our  present  Ecclesiastes,  and  done  so  much 
injustice  to  his  argument.  Gladly  would  I  continue 
this  subject,  but  I  must  not  be  tempted  away  from  my 
main  object,  which  is  to  ascertain  how  much  religion 
the  author  had.  I  will  quote  his  finest  bit  of  writing 
later  on. 

*  It  will  form  part  of  the  Polychrome  Bible ;  Professor  Haupt  is 
the  author. 


1 86  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


That  he  has  warm  and  deep  feelings  is  plain  at  a 
glance,  and  a  careful  reading  will  show  that  he  has 
also  a  religion — he  is  neither  practically  nor  theoret¬ 
ically  an  atheist.  But  compare  the  God  in  whom 
he  believes  with  the  Jehovah  of  the  psalmists,  and 
oh,  the  difference  !  That  he  never  names  the  name 
Yahw&  or  Jehovah  is  a  trifle  ;  the  misery  is  that  his 
God  is  so  far  removed  from  the  earth,  and  so  un¬ 
sympathetic.  He  is  one  whom  it  is  wise  to  fear  and 
to  obey,  even  if  no  reward  for  obedience  can  be 
reckoned  upon,  but  whom  it  is  not  easy  to  love,  and 
impossible  in  any  sense  to  comprehend.*  Long  ago 
this  God  has  predestinated  f  all  that  shall  happen  ; 
prudence  therefore  bids  us  fold  our  arms  and  acqui¬ 
esce  in  the  inevitable.  So,  then,  to  the  most  funda¬ 
mental  tenet  of  the  earlier  Judaism,  the  belief  in 
one  God,  the  author  clings  ;  it  gives  him  no  joy,  no 
rapture,  but  it  saves  him  from  the  gulf  of  waters. 
On  the  other  hand,  he  has  abandoned  (and  so  doubt¬ 
less  has  Agur,  the  freethinker)  a  tenet  only  less  fun¬ 
damental — that  of  a  proportionate  retribution  upon 
earth  for  the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  and  even 
refuses  the  sweet  anodyne,  accepted  by  most  Jews, 
of  a  great  reckoning-day  in  the  future,  when  there 
will  be  a  separation  between  the  righteous  and  the 
wicked,  between  him  who  serves  God  and  him  who 
*Eccles.  viii.,  17.  f  Eccles.  vi.,  10. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  187 


serves  Him  not.  I  will  not  say  that  the  author  any¬ 
where  denies  that  God  does  sometimes  punish  the 
sinner.  But  of  anything  like  a  principle  of  retribu¬ 
tive  justice  in  the  divine  government  he  can  see  no 
trace.  He  says  with  much  bitterness  : 

“  There  is  many  a  righteous  man  who  perishes  in 
spite  of  his  righteousness,  and  many  a  wicked  man  who 
lives  long  in  spite  of  his  wickedness.”  * 

And  again  : 

“  There  is  a  vanity  (a  disappointment  or  disillusion¬ 
ment)  which  happens  on  the  earth,  viz.,  that  there  are 
righteous  men  who  fare  according  to  the  work  of  the 
wicked,  and  that  there  are  wicked  men  who  fare  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  work  of  the  righteous.  I  say  that  this  also  is 
vanity.”  f 

Such  statements,  unsoftened  by  any  reference  to  a 
final  judgment,  gave  great  pain  to  the  devout. 
They  feared  for  the  young  readers  who  might  be 
charmed  by  the  boldness  of  the  author,  and  led  into 
the  devious  paths  of  heterodoxy.  Recourse  was 
therefore  had  by  pious  editors  to  the  expedient  of 
interpolation.  A  considerable  degree  of  success  was 
obtained.  In  the  Epilogue  the  author  was  described 
as  a  simply  devout  man,  and  in  the  body  of  the 
work  he  was  made  to  confess  that  the  wicked  were 
really  punished  here,  and  would  be  punished  here- 
♦Eccles.  vii.,  15.  f  Eccles.  viii.,  14. 


1 88  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


after.  Later  on,  the  popular  paraphrase  called  the 
Targum  went  a  great  deal  farther,  adapting  the 
book  to  the  fully  developed  eschatology  of  later 
Judaism.  But  when  you  have  before  you  an  Eccle¬ 
siastes  in  which  the  results  of  criticism  are  indicated, 
you  will,  I  think,  see  that  there  are  only  two  un¬ 
doubtedly  original  passages  in  which  the  moral  prac¬ 
tice  and  the  outward  fortunes  of  men  are  brought 
into  any  kind  of  relation.  I  will  quote  and  explain 
these  passages.  One  of  them  reads  thus  : 

“  Be  not  overmuch  wicked,  neither  be  thou  foolish  ; 
why  shouldest  thou  die  before  thy  time  ?  ”  * 

The  other  is: 

“  When  thou  hast  vowed  a  vow  unto  God,  defer  not 
the  payment.  Suffer  not  thy  mouth  to  bring  punishment 
on  thy  body,  neither  say  thou  before  the  messenger,  It 
was  spoken  rashly  ;  why  should  God  be  angry  at  thy 
voice,  and  destroy  the  work  of  thy  hands  ?  ”  f 

The  first  of  these  passages  seems  to  say  that  there 
are  certain  extremely  wicked  acts  which  exhaust  the 
long-suffering  of  God,  and  bring  the  surest  punish¬ 
ment  on  the  offender.  But  this  can  hardly  be  the 
true  meaning,  for  a  companion  saying  exists,  not  less 
remarkably  expressed  : 

“  Be  not  righteous  overmuch,  neither  make  thyself 
overwise  ;  why  shouldest  thou  destroy  thyself  ?  ”  J 

♦Eccles.  vii.,  17  (Authorised  Version). 

I  Eccles.  v.,  4,  6  (new  translation). 

J  Eccles.  vii.,  16  (Authorised  Version). 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  189 


Clearly  this  cannot  mean  that  those  who  make  right¬ 
eousness  and  wisdom  their  chief  concern  are  displeas¬ 
ing  to  God.  The  two  sayings  must  have  been  framed 
from  a  practical  man’s  point  of  view,  and  the  terms 
“  righteous”  and  “wicked  ”  must  be  taken  as  they 
were  commonly  understood  in  the  religious  world, 
i.  e.,  in  a  Pharisaean  sense.  Righteousness,  then,  de¬ 
notes  the  observance,  and  wickedness  the  neglect,  of 
the  more  minute  details  of  the  Law.  To  carry  legal 
obedience  to  the  point  of  asceticism  was  not  less 
suicidal  than  to  allow  a  sense  of  superiority  to  such 
pedantry  to  tempt  a  man  into  sensual  licence.  In 
both  cases  the  punishment  referred  to  is  simply  that 
which  arises  from  the  transgression  of  natural  laws. 
He  who  is  at  once  moderately  pious  and  moderately 
worldly  will,  according  to  Koheleth,  be  a  truly  wise 
man. 

The  second  passage  seems  to  show  that  even  this 
rationalist  thinker  was  not  completely  emancipated 
from  traditional  scruples.  One  offence  there  was 
which  would  not  escape  punishment,  and  that  was, 
to  vow  and  not  to  pay  the  vow.  If  you  do  this,  says 
the  author,  you  will  have  to  suffer  in  your  person, 
and  when  you  tell  the  priest’s  messenger  that  you 
spoke  the  vow  inconsiderately,  it  is  not  he,  but  God, 
who  will  be  irritated,  and  who  will  punish  you  with 
the  loss  of  property.  So  the  very  man  who  does  not 


190  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


believe  in  the  Messiah,  believes  in  a  divine  vengeance 
for  unfulfilled  vows ! 

One  cannot  help  pitying  our  author.  Of  course 
his  conscience  bade  him  disbelieve  in  the  judgment, 
and  yet  he  could  ill  afford  to  do  so.  I  do  not  deny 
that  there  were  Jews  in  that  age  who  were  as  capable 
as  St.  Bernard  of  disinterested  love  of  God.  For 
instance,  there  was  the  great  teacher  Antigonus  of 
Soco,  who  said,  “  Be  not  as  slaves  that  serve  with  a 
view  to  recompense ;  but  be  as  those  who  serve  dis¬ 
interestedly,  and  let  the  fear  of  Heaven  [i.  e.y  God] 
be  upon  you.”  It  is  true  he  uses  the  word  “  fear,” 
but  what  he  means  is  reverent  love.  We  must  re¬ 
member,  however,  that  Antigonus  was  a  disciple  of 
Simeon  the  Righteous,  whose  characteristic  saying 
he  must  be  considered  to  presuppose.  The  saying 
of  Simeon  the  Righteous  ran  thus : 

“  The  world  rests  on  three  things — on  the  Law,  on  the 
services  of  worship,  and  on  acts  of  loving-kindness.” 

If  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes  had  been  as  devoted  to 
the  Law  and  to  the  forms  of  worship  as  Antigonus  of 
Soco, — if  he  had  regarded  them  as  absolute  goods,  the 
following  of  which  was  its  own  reward, — he  might 
have  safely  abandoned  the  Messianic  hope.  But  this 
was  certainly  not  the  case.  He  believed  in  no  absolute 
goods,  was  no  enthusiast  even  for  the  Law,  and 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  191 


thought  it  necessary  to  deprecate  excessive  piety. 
Less  than  other  men,  therefore,  could  he  with  im¬ 
punity  abandon  the  belief  in  God’s  retributive  justice. 
If,  indeed,  he  had  accepted  a  certain  new  doctrine, 
just  beginning  to  be  popular, — that  of  Immortality, 
— all  might  have  been  well.  But  no  one  could  prove 
to  his  satisfaction  that  the  spirit  of  man  went  upward, 
and  that  it  was  only  the  spirit  of  the  beasts  which 
went  downward  to  the  earth.*  The  wonder  is  that 
he  could  maintain  such  morality  and  such  a  belief  in 
God  as  he  had.  “  Fear  thou  God,”  f  he  says  with  all 
earnestness.  If  he  recommends  the  pleasures  of  the 
table,  he  does  so  with  a  sad  irony  ;  enjoy  at  any  rate 
these  pleasures,  he  says,  because  they  have  not  the 
painful  consequences  of  higher  pleasures,  and  because 
the  time  for  enjoying  them  is  so  short ;  besides, — 
he  strangely  adds, — they  are  the  gift  of  God.  For 
himself,  it  is  true,  they  have  long  lost  their  savour. 
But  youth  will  be  youth,  and  he  does  not  grudge  the 
young  men,  for  whom  he  especially  writes,  a  chance 
of  trying  these  pleasures  before  they  pronounce  them 
mere  apples  of  Sodom. 

He  also  dwells  strongly  on  the  happiness  of  a 
pure  wedlock.  His  sincerity  in  this  is  beyond  all 
doubt.  And  here,  at  least,  he  is  a  true  Jew  ;  here,  at 
least,  he  shows  his  aversion  to  one  of  the  most 

*  Eccles.  iii.,  21.  f  Eccles.  v.,  7. 


192  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


characteristic  vices  of  Hellenism.  That  he  has 
himself  had  a  bad  experience  of  women,*  and  has 
apparently  missed  that  prize  which  is  “  above  rubies,” 
does  not  make  him  grudge  a  better  fortune  to  oth¬ 
ers.  Enjoy  life,  he  says,  with  a  woman  whom  thou 
lovest,  all  thy  fleeting  days  f  ;  and  again  : 

“  Give  no  place  to  sorrow  in  thy  mind, 

From  thy  body  keep  trouble  afar  ; 

Of  thy  cistern  take  good  heed 
In  the  days  of  youthful  age.”| 

What  “  cistern  ”  means  in  a  Semitic  poem  is  well 
expressed  by  Mr.  Lyall  in  a  note  to  one  of  his 
translations  of  old  Arabic  poetry :  “  The  ‘  cistern  ' 
is  a  man’s  home  and  family,  and  whatever  he  holds 
dear.” 

To  those  of  riper  age  our  author  speaks  in  more 
subdued  tones  : 

“  Better  to  go  to  the  house  of  mourning 
Than  to  go  to  the  house  of  feasting. 

For  there  is  the  end  of  all, 

The  living  will  take  it  to  heart. 

Better  is  sorrow  than  laughter, 

With  a  gloomy  face  the  heart  is  cheerful.”  § 

I  cannot  feel  sure,  however,  that  the  author  practised 

*  Eccles.  vii.,  27,  28. 

•f  Eccles.  viii.,  9. 

%  Ecde<=.  xi.,  10a,  xii.,  la  ;  cf.  Cheyne,  Job  and  Solomon ,  pp.  227, 
300. 

§  Eccles.  vii.,  2,  3. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  193 


his  own  advice  to  visit  mourners.  Had  he  done  so, 
we  should  surely  have  heard  something  of  the  duty 
of  showing  practical  sympathy  to  the  distressed. 
He  evidently  had  a  true  sense  of  the  misery  of 
mankind,  but  it  does  not  appear  that  he  troubled 
himself  much  about  the  misery  of  individuals. 
The  writers  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs  are  not  open 
to  this  criticism.  For  instance,  one  of  them  says, 
speaking  of  some  outrage  on  humanity  : 

“  Deliver  those  who  are  being  taken  to  death, 

And  those  who  go  with  tottering  steps  to  be  slain,  hold 
thou  back.”* 

But  I  am  afraid  that  under  such  circumstances  our 
author  would  have  been  content  with  looking  sadly 
on,  and  saying  with  a  groan,  “  This  also  is  vanity." 
Perhaps  he  may  be  excused  on  account  of  his 
advanced  age,  or  perhaps  it  is  his  theory  of  life 
which  has  weakened  his  benevolent  impulses.  For 
he  tells  us  : 

“  I  have  seen  all  the  works  that  are  done  under  the 
sun  ;  and  behold,  all  is  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit. 
That  which  is  crooked  cannot  be  made  straight,  and 
a  deficit  cannot  be  reckoned  in.”  \ 

And  then  we  meet  with  this  remarkable  confession 
of  ineradicable  egoism  : 

*  Prov.  xxiv.,  11. 

13 


fEccles.  i.,  14,  15. 


194  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


“  And  I  hated  all  my  toil  which  I  had  performed  under 
the  sun,  because  I  shall  have  to  leave  the  fruits  of  it  to 
one  who  will  come  after  me.  And  who  knows  whether 
he  will  be  a  wise  man  or  a  fool  ?  And  he  will  rule  over 
all  that  I  have  gained  with  toil  and  wisdom  under  the 
sun  ;  this  also  is  vanity."  * 

No  thought  enters  his  head  of  lending  his  money 
to  Jehovah,  as  the  proverb-writers  said,f  or  of  giving 
all  his  goods  to  build  schools  and  found  hospitals ; 
and  it  is  characteristic  of  the  poverty  of  his  book 
from  a  philanthropic  point  of  view  that  a  passage 
which  in  reality  is  simply  an  exhortation  to  bold 
business  enterprise  (“  Send  thy  bread  upon  the 
waters,  for  thou  shalt  find  it  after  many  days  ”),  has 
been  converted  by  preachers  into  a  recommendation 
of  beneficence.  The  truth  is  that  the  unhappy 
author  has  but  a  weak  social  sense.  From  old  habit 
and  the  influence  of  his  orthodox  education  he  may 
act  in  many  things  like  any  ordinary  Jew,  but  the 
bond  of  Jewish  nationality  exercises  almost  no  in¬ 
ward  force  upon  him,  and  he  has  not  gained  that 
new  sense  of  the  solidarity  of  mankind  which  is  so 
powerfully  expressed  by  the  great  Stoic  Roman  em¬ 
peror.  Mankind  is  to  him  only  an  aggregate  of 
millions  of  worthless  atoms.  Happier,  far  happier, 
were  Saul  and  Ahab,  and  many  another  who  sacri- 

*  Eccles.  ii.,  18,  19.  f  Prov.  xix.,  17. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  195 


ficed  his  life  for  his  people,  not  hoping  to  receive  it 
again,  than  this  melancholy  egoist,  who  had  in  him 
no  doubt  the  germs  of  fine  qualities,  but  whose 
development  had  been  rudely  interrupted  by  an 
excessive  deference  to  the  spirit  of  scepticism.  Cer¬ 
tainly  he  was  not  a  bad  man,  and  yet  there  must 
have  been  a  weakness  in  his  moral  fibre ;  otherwise 
his  Jewish  feeling  would  have  been  keener,  and  his 
opposition  to  complete  pessimism  more  effective. 
There  must  also,  one  thinks,  have  been  some  defect 
in  his  intellectual  capacity  ;  else  he  would  have  been 
drawn  irresistibly  either  to  the  Hebrew-Persian  doc¬ 
trine  of  the  Resurrection,  or  to  the  newer  Greek 
doctrine  of  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul.  Either  of 
these  tenets  would  have  saved  him  from  spiritual 
famine,  and  have  enabled  him  to  carry  on  the  work 
so  usefully  begun  by  successive  writers  in  that  noble 
composite  poem,  the  Book  of  Job. 

No  wonder  that  opinions  were  much  divided 
about  this  extraordinary  book.  Many  were  repelled, 
but  almost  as  many  (I  suppose)  were  attracted  by  it. 
Doubters  are  always  grateful  to  the  writer  who  can 
give  vigorous  and,  to  some  extent,  artistic  expres¬ 
sion  to  the  thoughts  which  stir  within  them.  That 
there  was  much  scepticism  among  the  Jews  in  the 
later  post-exilic  period  is  certain,  though,  naturally  • 
enough,  the  evidence  for  this  is  scanty.  The  over- 


196  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


throw  of  the  Persian  Empire  by  Alexander  was  of 
itself  a  fruitful  source  of  religious  doubt.  Long  had 
that  empire  been  tottering  to  its  fall,  and  the  Jews 
had  comforted  themselves  for  their  manifold  miser¬ 
ies  by  the  thought  that  when  the  fall  came  the  re¬ 
stored  kingdom  of  Israel  would  come  too.  But  it 
came  not,  and  some  men  began  to  think  that  fortune 
was  on  the  side  of  Greek  power,  and  truth  on  that 
of  Greek  philosophy.  Even  the  Maccabaean  revolu¬ 
tion  did  not  succeed  in  extinguishing  the  sceptical 
tendency.  The  extreme  Hellenisers,  who  would 
have  substituted  Zeus  for  Jehovah,  were  no  doubt 
swept  away  by  it.  But  the  improvement  in  Jewish 
circumstances  was  not  such  as  to  render  religious 
doubt  impossible.  The  old  doctrine  of  retribution 
and  the  newer  Messianic  hope  were  equally  hard  to 
reconcile  with  facts,  and  the  increasing  knowledge 
of  the  world  made  the  narrowness  of  Jewish  ortho¬ 
doxy  more  and  more  unpalatable  to  many  thinkers. 
To  such  persons  the  deeply  felt  and  vigorously  ex¬ 
pressed  scepticism  of  Ecclesiastes  appealed  with 
great  force.  To  suppress  the  book  was  impossible. 
All  that  the  religious  authorities  could  do  was  to 
neutralise  its  teaching.  This  they  effected  (as  we 
have  seen),  partly  by  shuffling  up  certain  sections, 
and  so  destroying  the  connection,  and  partly  by 
interpolating  passages  referring  to  the  future  judg- 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  197 


ment  and  to  the  blast  and  penitent  King  Solomon. 
To  us  the  Solomonic  reference  is  shocking  in  the 
extreme,  but  an  earlier  age  (probably)  had  already 
seen  equally  startling  transformations  of  history  in 
the  Books  of  Chronicles.  The  Epilogue,  too,  received 
this  remarkable  appendix  : 

“  The  final  result,  all  having  been  heard  :  Fear  God, 
and  keep  His  commandments,  for  this  is  the  whole  (duty) 
of  man.  For  every  work  will  God  bring  into  the  judg¬ 
ment  (which  will  be)  upon  all  that  is  concealed  and  all 
that  is  manifest,  whether  it  be  good  or  evil.”  * 

Thus  the  author  was  made  the  preacher  of  a  doctrine 
in  which  he  did  not  believe,  and  a  pillar  of  an  ortho¬ 
doxy  which  he  had  tried  and  found  wanting.  He 
even  became  idealised  into  a  penitent,  backsliding 
king,  and  under  cover  of  that  king’s  name  his  book 
made  its  way  into  the  Canon. 

And  now  as  to  the  date  of  the  book.  We  know, 
of  course,  that  it  is  a  post-exilic  work  ;  no  critic 
would  hesitate  to  use  it  in  a  historical  sketch  like 
the  present.  But  to  what  part  of  the  post-exilic 
period  does  it  belong?  The  question  is  of  much 
interest,  and  presses  for  an  answer.  That  the  spirit 
and  tendency  of  the  book  presuppose  Greek  philo¬ 
sophical  influence  is  sufficiently  clear.  Take  the 
first  autobiographical  passage ;  of  course  I  omit  the 

*  Eccles.  xii . ,  13,  14. 


198  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


interpolated  words  “  was  [or,  have  been]  king  over 
Israel  in  Jerusalem.” 

“  I  Koheleth  (or,  the  Preacher)  gave  my  mind  to 
making  search  and  exploration,  by  wisdom,  concerning 
all  that  is  done  under  heaven  ;  it  is  sore  trouble  which 
God  has  given  to  the  human  race  to  undergo.  I  saw  all 
works  which  are  done  under  the  sun.”  * 

This  means  that  Koheleth  is,  or  would  like  to  be, 
a  critical  inquirer  into  the  condition  of  humanity. 
Can  there  be  anything  more  un-Hebraic,  more  un- 
Oriental,  than  the  idea,  unless,  indeed,  it  be  the 
form  of  expression  ?  And  what  unsophisticated 
Hebrew  writer  could  possibly  have  understood  this 
saying : 

“  Also  He  has  put  the  world  into  their  mind,  except 
that  man  cannot  find  out  from  beginning  to  end  the 
work  which  God  has  made”  ?f 

Certain  passages  suggest  the  possibility  that  the 
author  had  a  leaning  to  Stoicism.  Just  so,  the  say¬ 
ing  of  Antigonus  of  Soco  (quoted  elsewhere)  on 
disinterested  obedience  may  seem  to  have  Stoic 
affinities.  Nor  is  it  inconceivable  that  the  ideas  of 
other  philosophical  schools  may  have  filtered  down 
to  our  author.  It  would  be  dangerous,  however, 
to  speak  positively  on  this  subject,  because  of  the 

*  Eccles.  i.,  12-14. 

fEccles.  iii. ,  11.  See  Cheyne,  Job  and  Solomon,  p.  210. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  199 


want  of  undeniably  technical  philosophical  terms  in 
the  Hebrew  text  of  Ecclesiastes.  Indirect  Greek 
philosophical  influence  is  all  that  is  quite  certain. 

It  is  at  any  rate  something  to  know  that  our 
author’s  date  is  subsequent  to  the  conquests  of 
Alexander.  On  linguistic  grounds  he  must,  it  would 
seem,  have  written  later  than  290  B.C.,  the  earliest 
date  which  anyone  has  proposed  for  the  Book  of 
Ecclesiasticus,  and  if  so,  since  neither  the  Macca- 
baean  rising  nor  the  preceding  period  provides  a 
suitable  background,  we  cannot  stop  short  till  we 
come  to  the  time  of  John  Hyrcanus  (135-105  B.C.). 
To  this  period  Ecclesiastes  has  been  assigned  by 
Renan.  The  objection  is  twofold  :  First,  the  reign 
of  Hyrcanus  was  a  brilliant  one,  and  made  most 
Jews  feel  proud  of  their  country.*  And  next, 
though  Hyrcanus  had  the  royal  power,  he  contented 
himself  with  the  title  of  high  priest.  The  reign 
of  Alexander  Jannaeus  (104-78  B.C.),  a  son  of  John 
Hyrcanus,  comes  next  into  consideration.  It  was 
a  period  of  miserable  civil  wars,  and  the  doings  of 
the  King  were  such  as  to  alienate  all  high-minded 
Jews.  It  was  also  a  period  when  Greek  influence 
was  very  strong;  Josephus  tells  us  that  the  King’s 
brother  and  predecessor,  Aristobulus,  bore  the  title 

*  We  see  this  from  a  remarkable  passage  in  pseudo- Jonathan’s 
Targum  on  Deut.  xxxiii.,  n. 


200  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


of  Philhellen.  But  how  strange  it  would  be  if  a 
book  written  at  this  period  gave  no  indication  of 
the  strife  which  then  raged  between  the  Sadducees 
and  the  Pharisees  !  Let  us  go  a  little  farther  down, 
and  read  Josephus’s  account  of  the  reign  of  Herod, 
miscalled  the  Great.  It  was  a  time,  he  tells  us,  of 
general  terror  and  insecurity.  The  citizens  of  Jeru¬ 
salem  dared  not  even  walk  or  eat  together,  because 
the  tyrant  had  forbidden  all  social  gatherings.  Spies 
were  set  everywhere,  both  in  and  near  the  city ; 
Herod  himself,  it  is  said,  mingled  in  disguise  with 
the  people,  not,  like  a  famous  caliph,  to  find  out 
whether  they  were  happy,*  but  to  catch  up  expres¬ 
sions  of  discontent.  His  avowed  and  irreconcilable 
adversaries  he  persecuted,  and  if  they  protested  he 
took  their  lives.  A  general  oath  of  allegiance  was 
imposed,  from  which  only  the  Essenes,  to  whom 
Herod  was  partial,  were  excused.  Above  6000 
Pharisees  refused  the  oath,  and  were  fined  ;  some 
of  them  were  afterwards  revengefully  slain. f  I 
confess  that  I  can  at  present  find  no  period  which 
so  adequately  explains  the  allusions  in  Ecclesiastes 
as  this.  Can  we  not  see  that  the  chief  source  of 
the  misery  described  in  it  is  the  general  sense  of 
danger?  Listen  to  this  advice  of  the  author: 

*  The  story  of  Haroun-al- Rashid  is  legendary,  however. 

f  Jos.,  Ant.,  xv.,  10,  4  ;  xvii.,  2,  4. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  201 


“  Curse  not  the  king,  even  on  thy  couch, 

And  curse  not  the  rich  in  thy  bedchamber, 

For  the  birds  of  the  air  may  carry  the  sound, 

And  the  winged  ones  report  the  speech.”* 

He  tells  us,  too,  that  this  suspicious  ruler  is  no  high¬ 
born  personage,  but  has  the  tyrannical  instincts  of  a 
parvenu : 

“  Woe  to  thee,  O  land,  when  thy  king  is  a  servant  ! 
Happy  art  thou,  O  land,  when  thou  hast  a  king  who 
was  born  free.”  f 

Singularly  enough,  there  is  a  Talmudic  legend  £  which 
makes  a  distinguished  Rabbi,  deprived  of  his  sight 
by  Herod,  quote  these  very  passages  in  an  interview 
with  the  King.  I  should  mention  that  Herod  had 
put  on  a  disguise,  and  was  seeking  to  tempt  the  Rabbi 
to  speak  bitter  words  against  the  man  who  had  blinded 
him.  The  story  belongs  to  a  class  of  narratives  which 
are  obviously  unhistorical,  but  at  least  shows  the  feel¬ 
ing  of  a  later  age  that  the  tyranny  of  Herod  was  most 
fitly  illustrated  by  Ecclesiastes. 

The  whole  book  may  be  explained  from  this  point 
of  view,  and  it  will  become  truly  alive.  For  in- 

*  Eccles.  x.,  20.  “  Bedchamber”  is  a  necessary  correction, 

f  Eccles.  x.,  16a,  17a.  The  passage  quoted  reminds  us  of  Isa. 
iii.,  4;  the  unquoted  portion,  of  Isa.  v.,  11.  The  writer  finds  in 
these  prophetic  passages  an  applicability  to  his  own  times. 

f  Baba  Bathra,  4a.  Usually  this  story  is  treated  as  historical. 
But  see  the  remark  at  the  close  of  this  paragraph. 


202  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


stance,  why  does  the  writer  compassionate  a  land 
whose  king  is  a  servant  ?  Because  Herod  belonged 
to  a  race  which  had  been  lately  subjugated  by  the 
Jews,  and  even  compelled  to  change  its  religion.  In 
the  Talmud  he  actually  receives  the  title  “slave  of 
the  Asmonaean  house,”  reminding  us  of  Ecclesiastes, 
because  the  Idumaeans  had  been  conquered  by  John 
Hyrcanus.  Compare  this  passage  too  : 

“  I  saw  slaves  on  horseback,  and  princes  (walking)  like 
slaves  on  the  ground.”  * 

The  meaning  of  this  may  be  that  Herod  dispossessed 
the  Asmonaeans  and  their  friends,  and  put  his  own 
partisans  ( parvenus  and  perhaps  Idumaeans)  into  all 
the  best  posts.  And  here  is  another  striking  allusion 
to  politics : 

“  Be  not  involved  in  a  bad  affair  ; 

For  he  can  do  all  that  he  wills  ; 

Because  the  word  of  the  king  is  decisive  ; 

Who  can  ask,  What  doest  thou  ?  ”  f 

Do  we  not  feel  the  heavy  air  of  the  despotism  of 
Herod  ?  Experience  has  warned  the  writer  of  the 
fatal  consequences  of  being  involved  in  revolutionary 
attempts.  Listen  again  : 

“  The  wise  man  observes  the  king’s  commandment 

Because  of  the  oath  by  God.”  | 

*  Eccles.  x.,  7.  f  Eccles.  viii.,  3,  4  ;  cf.  x.,  4. 

X  Eccles.  viii.,  2  (following  Bickell). 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  203 


This  seems  to  allude  to  the  compulsory  oath  of 
which  Josephus  has  told  us.  A  similar  allusion  is 
perhaps  traceable  in  the  following  passage  : 

“  There  is  one  and  the  same  fate  for  every  one,  for  the 
righteous  and  the  wicked,  for  the  clean  and  for  the  un¬ 
clean,  for  the  sacrificer  and  for  the  non-sacrificer.  The 
good  man  fares  just  like  the  sinner,  and  he  that  swears 
as  he  that  fears  an  oath.”  * 

Here  there  seems  to  be  a  reference  to  the  Essenes, 
who,  as  Josephus  asserts,  refrained  from  the  usual 
sacrifices,  having  purer  lustrations  of  their  own,  and 
forbade  swearing,  because  a  man  whose  simple  af¬ 
firmation  could  not  be  trusted  was  condemned  al¬ 
ready.  Fortunately  for  them  Herod  respected  their 
scruple  about  swearing.  But  our  author  evidently 
depreciates  the  class  of  non-swearers.  Presumably 
he  includes  the  Essenes  (who  also,  be  it  remembered, 
rejected  matrimony)  among  the  “ultra-religious" 
people  who,  as  he  forcibly  says,  “  destroyed  them¬ 
selves.  ” 

There  is  a  description  of  Essene  asceticism  in  the 
Book  of  Enoch, f  which,  though  written  from  a  very 
different  point  of  view,  confirms  the  opinion  here 
adopted,  viz.,  that  the  author  of  Ecclesiastes  makes 
allusions  to  the  Essenes.  In  it  these  self-denying 
men  are  represented  as  loving  heaven  more  than 
*  Eccles.  ix.,  2.  f  Enoch  cviii.  ;  cf.  cii. 


204  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


their  worldly  life,  and  are  contrasted  with  the  sin¬ 
ners  who  deny  judgment  and  resurrection.  The 
antithesis  between  Ecclesiastes  and  Enoch  is  com¬ 
plete.* 

We  need  not  be  surprised  at  this  wide  divergence 
between  the  writers  of  the  two  books.  The  one 
gives  us  the  dry  light  of  experience  and  philosophy  ; 
the  other  irradiates  the  facts  of  life  with  the  light  of 
visions  and  dreams.  The  one  believes  in  the  divine 
guidance  of  the  fortunes  of  Israel  ;  the  other  has 
lost  almost  all  sense  of  nationality  without  having 
gained  the  greater  citizenship  of  the  world.  The 
writer  in  Enoch  is  in  spirit,  if  not  in  fact,  an  Essene  ; 
the  author  of  Ecclesiastes  would  sympathise  more 
with  the  Sadducees  than  with  any  other  of  the  lead¬ 
ing  schools  of  thought.  Thus  we  have  in  their 
respective  writings,  monuments  of  two  of  the  three 
great  tendencies  of  later  Judaism.  I  do  not,  of 
course,  say  that  the  writer  of  Ecclesiastes  was  a 
typical  Sadducee.  Probably  Ben  Sira — the  wise 
man  who  composed  Ecclesiasticus — was  closer  to 
the  ordinary  Sadducaean  type,  alike  in  his  sacerdotal¬ 
ism  and  in  his  theology. f  But  there  was,  I  suppose, 

*  Cf.  Lecture  VI. 

fThis  is  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  the  Books  of  the  Sadducees  and 
the  Book  of  Ben  Sira  are  placed  side  by  side  on  the  old  Jewish  Index 
Expurgatorius.  See  Sanhedrin ,  ioob  ;  Taylor,  Jewish  Fathers ,  p. 
129. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  205 


room  in  the  great  Sadducaean  party  for  men  of 
differing  degrees  of  culture  and  conservatism.  I 
may  add  that  in  the  so-called  Psalms  of  Solomon  (see 
Lecture  VI.)  we  have  an  undoubted  record  of  the 
religion  of  the  Pharisees.  It  is  well  that  we  should 
learn  to  know  every  school  or  party  from  its  own 
ablest  representatives,  and  so  students  may  be  ad¬ 
vised  to  read  these  books,  which  cannot  fail  to  cor¬ 
rect  the  bias  with  which,  if  their  education  has  been 
Christian,  they  not  unnaturally  approach  New 
Testament  times. 

It  is  possible,  no  doubt,  that  we  may  have  less  re¬ 
ligious  sympathy  with  Ecclesiastes  than  with  the 
other  two  books,  and  I  am  quite  certain  that  looking 
back  on  the  Book  of  Job  and  even  on  those  of 
Proverbs  and  Ecclesiasticus,  we  shall  feel  disap¬ 
pointed  at  the  apparent  failure  of  the  great  movement 
towards  Wisdom.  But  let  us  remember  that  the 
writer  with  whom  religiously  we  sympathise  least 
is  the  one  with  whom  on  other  grounds  we  cannot 
help  sympathising  most.  His  frankness  and  the 
width  of  his  outlook  both  charm  us,  and,  when  we 
recollect  the  miserable  age  in  which  he  lived,  our 
criticism  of  his  religious  deficiencies  gives  place  to 
the  sincerest  pity.  He  might,  no  doubt,  have  saved 
his  religious  fervour  by  joining  the  Pharisees  or  the 
Essenes.  But  to  have  done  so  he  would  have  had  to 


206  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


sacrifice  the  conception  of  a  broad  human  culture 
which  he  had  gained  from  Greece.  It  was  needful 
that  the  attempt  should  be  made  to  engraft  this 
conception  on  Jewish  thought,  and  so  to  combine 
Jewish  theism  with  Hellenic  rationalism.  The  first 
to  make  this  attempt  suffered  for  his  boldness,  but 
we,  who  pity  but  who  do  not  dare  to  censure  the 
atrophy  of  certain  parts  of  his  higher  nature  (similar 
to  that  which,  by  his  own  admission,  was  suffered  by 
the  illustrious  Darwin),  cannot  withhold  our  appre¬ 
ciation  of  the  noble  though  unsuccessful  endeavour 
of  the  writer  of  Ecclesiastes. 

For,  after  all,  it  would  have  been  an  immense 
misfortune  if  Jewish  theism  had  become  absolutely 
and  permanently  committed  to  Pharisaism.  Later 
on,  the  Jewish  people  in  Palestine  was  indeed 
virtually  captured  by  Pharisaism,  but  the  existence 
of  Ecclesiastes  in  the  Canon,  even  in  its  manipulated 
form,  was  a  protest  against  this,  and  unless  the 
world  were  to  continue  divided  into  Jews  and  non- 
Jews  it  was  necessary  that  the  attempt  to  Hellenise 
Jewish  religion  should  be  renewed.  What  attitude 
our  philosophic  Sadducee  would  have  adopted  to¬ 
wards  such  a  renewal,  it  is  useless  to  surmise.  But 
one  may  justly  suppose  that  his  outlook  would  have 
been  far  less  pessimistic,  and  that  some  elementary 
form  of  the  idea  of  progress  would  have  compensated 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  207 


him  for  the  renunciation  of  the  inadequate  Messi¬ 
anic  idea  of  the  Pharisees. 

It  is  the  absence  of  this  inspiriting  idea  which 
makes  his  confessions  morally  so  great  a  disappoint¬ 
ment.  A  writer  may  be  as  severe  as  he  will  on  the 
sins  and  follies  of  the  present,  if  only  he  leaves  open 
a  door  of  hope  for  the  future.  Carlyle  is  commonly 
thought  a  gloomy  writer,  but  he  is  a  truly  edifying 
one,  because  on  the  whole,  at  any  rate  in  his  time  of 
vigour,  he  believed  in  progress.  Who  is  not  helped 
morally  by  that  fine  passage  in  Sartor  Resartus? — 

“  Generations  are  as  the  Days  of  toilsome  Mankind  ; 
Death  and  Birth  are  the  vesper  and  the  matin  bells,  that 
summon  Mankind  to  sleep,  and  to  rise  refreshed  for  new 
advancement." 

Contrast  this  fine  but  most  dispiriting  passage  in 
Ecclesiastes  : 

“  One  generation  goes,  another  comes, 

But  the  earth  abides  for  ever  ; 

The  sun  rises,  and  the  sun  goes  down, 

And  pants  to  his  place  where  he  rises  ; 

The  wind  goes  to  the  south,  and  whirls  about  to  the 
north, 

Whirling  about  continually  ; 

And  upon  his  circuits  the  wind  returns. 

All  streams  run  into  the  sea,  and  yet  the  sea  is  not  full  ; 

Unto  the  place  whither  the  streams  go,  thither  they  go 
again. 


208  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


All  things  are  full  of  weariness  ;  no  man  can  utter  it ; 
The  eye  is  not  satisfied  with  seeing,  nor  the  ear  filled  with 
hearing. 

The  day  that  has  been  is  that  which  will  be, 

And  that  which  happened  is  that  which  will  happen, 
And  there  is  no  new  thing  under  the  sun.”  * 

O  lame  and  impotent  conclusion  !  Why,  Montaigne 
can  teach  us  something  better  than  that ;  for  he  de¬ 
clares  that  “  the  human  spirit  is  a  great  worker  of 
miracles/’  And  it  is  certain  that  such  miracles  can 
only  be  wrought  through  the  enabling  power  of  that 
supreme  Wisdom  who  was  in  the  beginning  with 
God,  and  has  “  her  delight  in  the  race  of  men,”  who 
cannot  be  hindered,  is  ready  to  do  good,  is  kind  to 
man,  steadfast,  sure,  free  from  care,  having  all  power, 
overseeing  all  things. f  Such  at  any  rate  was  the 
belief  of  the  greater  Hebrew  sages,  and  though  this 
noble  idea,  partly,  perhaps,  derived  from  Persia,  was 
now,  through  Greek  influence,  lost  by  a  leading 
writer,  it  was  destined  to  be  brought  into  fresh 
prominence  at  no  distant  date  on  the  hospitable  soil 
of  a  Hellenised  corner  of  Egypt. 

For  some  reasons  I  should  be  glad  to  pause  here. 
The  exceptional  character  of  the  author  of  Ecclesi¬ 
astes  has  a  fascination  for  me,  and  I  would  rather 
that  the  spell  should  remain  for  the  present  un¬ 
broken.  But  historical  fairness  compels  me,  at  the 
*  Eccles.  i.,  4-9.  f  Wisd.  vii.,  22,  23  ;  cf.  Prov.  viii.,  22-31. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  209 


risk  of  weakening  the  effect  of  the  preceding  study, 
to  introduce  the  reader  to  a  less  interesting  but 
hardly  less  important  student  of  wisdom.  I  refer  to 
the  author  of  Ecclesiasticus.  For  I  must  not  let  you 
suppose  that  all  the  wise  men  of  the  later  period  re¬ 
sembled  the  unfortunate  author  of  Ecclesiastes,  or 
that  heresy  had  a  greater  vogue  than  orthodox 
wisdom. 

The  Wisdom  of  Jesus  the  Son  of  Sirach  (or  Ben 
Sira,  as  I  shall  call  him)  was  probably  written  about 
200  B.C.  It  is  of  the  religious  views  of  the  author 
that  I  have  now  to  speak.  I  shall  base  my  state¬ 
ments  as  much  as  possible  on  the  Hebrew  portion  of 
the  text  which  has  lately  been  discovered. 

And,  first,  I  think  we  must  observe  a  decided 
abatement  in  the  cosmopolitan  tendency  of  Hebrew 
Wisdom.  The  author  of  Ecclesiasticus  makes  fre¬ 
quent  reference  to  Israel,  and  its  spiritual  primacy 
among  the  nations.*  And  in  the  Praise  of  Wisdom, 
which,  in  imitation  of  Proverbs  viii.,  he  feels  bound 
to  give,  he  goes  beyond  his  model  in  the  declaration 
that,  though  in  all  the  earth  she  had  a  possession, 
yet  her  permanent  home  was  in  Jerusalem  ;  he  even 
says  that  she  is  identical  with  “  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant,  the  law  which  Moses  commanded  us.”  f 

♦Ecclus.  xvii.,  17  ;  xxiv.,  8  ;  xxxvi.,  12  ;  xxxvii.,  25. 

f  Ecclus.  xxiv.,  23. 


2io  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


This  is  a  statement  which  no  Alexandrian  Jewish 
scholar  would  have  made,  and  which  has  distinctly 
Zoroastrian  affinities,  for  Din  or  Daena,  the  imper¬ 
sonation  of  the  Zoroastrian  Law,  is  called  one  of  the 
heavenly  creations  of  “  the  much-knowing  Lord,” 
Ahura-mazda.*  Later  on,  it  became  a  fundamental 
Jewish  tenet  that  the  pre-existent,  creative  Wisdom 
was  no  other  than  the  Law.f 

Ben  Sira,  then,  honoured  the  Law,  and  was  im¬ 
pelled  to  do  this  more  openly  than  the  moral  teachers 
before  him.  If  he  does  not  mention  Ezra  among 
the  famous  men  of  old,  it  is  simply  because  the  only 
public  services  assigned  to  Ezra  by  the  record  were 
such  as  it  would  have  equally  depressed  Ben  Sira 
to  speak  of,  and  grieved  his  disciples  to  hear4  Prac¬ 
tically,  however,  his  respect  for  the  Law  is  tempered 
by  his  regard  for  the  other  religious  classics  of  his 
people,  from  all  of  which  he  borrows  phrases  im¬ 
partially.  That  he  troubled  himself  much  about 
ritual  details  is  not  probable.  It  is  true,  he  says 
that  sacrifices,  being  ordained,  are  not  to  be  neglected, 
but  he  also  says  that  deeds  of  loving-kindness  are  the 
true  thank-offerings,  and  that  to  forsake  unrighteous- 

*  See  the  Din-Yast,  Zend-Avesta  (Oxford),  ii. ,  264  ff. 

f  Ezr.  vii.,  25,  points  in  this  direction.  Cf.  also  the  saying  of  Simeon 
the  Righteous,  quoted  already. 

\  Even  of  Nehemiah,  Ben  Sira  can  only  report  that  he  had  restored 
the  walls  and  set  up  the  gates  (Ecclus.  xlix.,  13). 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  21 1 


ness  is  a  propitiation,*  and  in  the  temple  services  it 
is  the  external  pomp  together  with  the  music  and 
singing  which  attracts  and  delights  him.  Doubtless 
he  honours  highly  the  priests,  the  sons  of  Aaron, 
whose  privileges  he  contrasts  advantageously  with 
those  of  the  family  of  David.f  This  naturally 
followed  from  his  respect  for  the  Law.  But  it  is 
as  the  guardians  of  the  visible  centre  of  the  Jewish 
church-nation,  much  more  than  as  sacrificers,  that 
he  venerates  the  priests. 

The  hope  of  the  Messiah  is  less  real  to  our  author 
than  to  the  older  sages,:):  but  his  doctrine  of  the 
latter  days  is  more  developed  than  theirs.  Firmly 
as  he  believes  in  present  retribution,  he  cannot  do 
without  a  final  judgment,  and  that  strange  prophecy 
of  Malachi,  which  is  even  to-day  such  a  power  in  the 
Jewish  world,  respecting  the  reappearance  of  the 
prophet  Elijah,  is  referred  to  with  undoubting  belief 
by  Ben  Sira.  When  Elijah  comes,  the  crisis  in 
Israel’s  fortunes  will  have  arrived.  All  the  other 
eschatological  prophecies  will  then  be  realised  in 
blissful  experience  : 

“  Happy  is  he  who  sees  thee  [viz.,  Elijah],  and  dies, 
For  he  will  not  die,  but  live  indeed.”  § 

*  Ecclus.  xxxv.,  1-6. 

f  Ecclus.  xlv.,  25  ;  David’s  inheritance  was  “  only  from  son  to 
son  ”  (so  Heb.  text).  \  See  Lecture  IV.  §  Ecclus.  xlviii.,  n. 


2  I  2 


Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


True,  Malachi’s  prophecy  by  itself  does  not  warrant 
this,  but  taken  in  combination  with  another  great 
prophecy  it  does.  In  the  Book  of  Isaiah  we  read 
that,  in  Mount  Zion,  God  “will  annihilate  death  for 
ever.”  *  Therefore  the  righteous  whom  Elijah  finds 
alive  will  pass  at  once  into  the  new  life  without 
tasting  death ;  Ben  Sira’s  correction  in  the  second 
line  of  a  word  in  the  first  line  has  a  fine  rhetorical 
effect. 

There  is  no  dualism  and  no  pessimism  in  the 
author  of  Ecclesiasticus.  “  When  the  wicked  man 
curses  Satan,”  he  says,  “  he  curses  his  own  soul,”f 
for  the  tempter  called  Satan  is  identical  with  the 
inborn  tempter  of  the  heart — the  weak  or  depraved 
will.  From  all  troublesome  speculation  Ben  Sira 
escapes  into  that  picture-gallery  of  Jehovah’s  works 
which  we  already  know  from  the  Book  of  Job. 
There  is  no  room  here  either  for  an  Adversary  or 
for  the  spectre  of  Disillusionment.  At  the  con¬ 
clusion  of  his  summary  of  the  marvels  of  nature, 
Ben  Sira  says,  with  devout  simplicity: 

“  More  in  this  style  we  will  not  add  ; 

The  end  of  the  discourse  is,  He  is  all. 

If  more  were  disclosed,  we  should  (still)  not  search 
Him  out, 

For  greater  is  He  than  all  His  works. 


*  Isa.  xxv.,  8. 


■f  Ecclus.  xxi.,  27. 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  213 


What  man  has  seen  Him,  that  he  might  tell  us  ? 

What  man  can  magnify  Him  as  He  is? 

There  are  yet  many  things  that  are  greater  than  these  ; 

But  little  of  His  works  have  I  seen. 

Jehovah  has  made  all  that  is, 

And  to  His  pious  ones  He  has  given  wisdom.”  * 

I  cannot,  however,  take  leave  of  Ben  Sira  without 
comparing  him  with  another  writer,  who  represents  a 
slightly  different  type  of  piety.  The  author  and 
compiler  of  Chronicles  (which,  by  rights,  should 
include  Ezra  and  Nehemiah)  was  by  calling  doubt¬ 
less  one  of  the  Levitical  musicians ;  his  date  is  fifty 
or  sixty  years  earlier  than  that  of  Ben  Sira.  The 
man  is  often  more  interesting  than  his  work;  or 
rather,  the  work  is  often  most  interesting  as  a  veiled 
picture  of  its  author.  The  Chronicler  is,  of  course, 
more  attracted  by  the  details  of  the  ritual  than  Ben 
Sira,  the  layman.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  him  to  give 
somewhat  minute  descriptions  of  the  services  and 
even  of  the  vessels  of  the  temple,  nor  does  he  betray 
any  depreciation  of  animal  sacrifices ;  he  could 
hardly  have  gone  so  far  towards  non-sacrificial  re- 
ligion  as  Ben  Sira  and  some  of  the  psalmists. 

It  is  obvious  that  he  takes  a  special  interest  in 
those  functions  of  his  own  class  which  have  no  con¬ 
nection  with  sacrificing.  He  mentions  a  Levitical 

*  Ecclus.  xliii.,  27-33. 


2i4  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


scribe  as  early  as  the  reign  of  David,  and  says  that 
Jehoshaphat  sent  Levitical  teachers  of  the  Law  to 
all  the  cities  of  Judah.  These  were  functions  which 
could  also  be  discharged  by  laymen,  and  which  were 
destined  to  overshadow  those  belonging  properly  to 
the  priests.  Still  more  interest  does  he  show  in  the 
temple  psalmody ;  he  assumes  as  a  matter  of  course 
that  the  existing  arrangements  date  back  to  the  tenth 
century.  His  interest  was  fully  shared  by  Ben  Sira, 
as  we  see  from  the  Praise  of  Pious  Men  in  Ecclesias- 
ticus.  Probably,  however,  neither  of  these  writers 
realised  the  vast  spiritual  influence  of  the  writers  of 
psalms. 

That  Ben  Sira  believes  in  a  present  retribution,  we 
have  seen  already.  The  Chronicler,  however,  supplies 
still  stronger  evidence  of  the  renewed  vitality  of  this 
belief  in  the  third  century.  I  need  not  quote  all  the 
astounding  distortions  and  inventions  of  fact  into 
which  the  Chronicler’s  pious  illusion  has  led  him. 
Quite  enough  has  been  said  against  the  Chronicler 
as  a  historian  ;  let  an  appreciative  word  be  spoken  of 
the  Chronicler  as  a  man.  In  that  age,  to  believe  so 
earnestly  in  the  justice  of  God  was  a  service  to  moral¬ 
ity  for  which  we  may  well  condone  a  score  of  viola¬ 
tions  of  historical  accuracy,  and  the  idealisation  of 
David  is  as  much  a  prophecy  of  the  better  age  to 
come  as  the  vision  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  and  the 


Orthodox  and  Heretical  Wisdom  215 


Rod  from  Jesse’s  stock.  For  eschatological  descrip¬ 
tions  the  Chronicler  had  no  space.  But  the  profuse¬ 
ness  with  which  he  deals  out  imaginary  prophets  to 
the  earlier  ages  assures  us  of  his  eager  desire  for  a 
true  prophet  of  the  good  old  style,  just  as  his  insist¬ 
ence  on  the  divine  justice  convinces  us  that  he  must 
have  prayed  daily  for  the  advent  of  Israel’s  true  king, 
Jehovah. 

One  more  point  of  contact  with  Ben  Sira  and 
still  more  with  the  Psalter  must  in  conclusion  be 
mentioned — the  tenderness  of  his  piety.  I  put  his 
theology  aside,  and  speak  only  of  his  feeling,  as  ex¬ 
pressed  in  the  speeches  which  he  assigns  to  his  per¬ 
sonages.  The  words  in  which  David  blessed  Jehovah 
before  all  the  congregation  (1  Chron.  xxix.,  10-19) 
may  be  instanced.  They  are  not  indeed  such  as 
David  could  possibly  have  uttered,  but  with  a  few 
omissions,  they  might  have  been  used  by  a  pious 
Levite  in  leading  the  devotions  of  humble-minded 
Jewish  believers.  Here,  as  at  other  points  of  his 
faulty  historical  reconstruction,  the  worthy  Chroni¬ 
cler  opens  a  window  in  his  heart.  And  no  attain¬ 
ments  of  intellectual  wisdom  are  worth  as  much  as 
that  loving  reverence  for  God  in  which  he  lived  and 
moved. 


LECTURE  VI. 

Judaism  :  its  Power  of  Attracting  Foreigners; 
its  Higher  Theology ;  its  Relation  to 
Greece,  Persia,  and  Babylon. 

IN  the  third  Lecture  we  studied  those  exquisite 
poems  on  the  Servant  of  Jehovah  which  re¬ 
present  a  perfect  fusion  of  the  legal  and  the  pro¬ 
phetic  religion.  The  Servant  of  Jehovah,  i.  e .,  the 
company  of  religious  teachers  which  formed  the 
kernel  of  the  Jewish  people,  was  to  convert,  first, 
lukewarm  or  indifferent  Jews,  and  then  the  other  na¬ 
tions  to  the  true  religion.  The  spirit  of  his  preach¬ 
ing  was  prophetic  ;  the  basis  of  his  message  was  legal. 
That  Jehovah  (interpreted  to  mean  “  He  who  is,” 
i.  e.,  the  ground  and  source  of  all  being  and  all  true 
knowledge  and  power)  is  the  God  of  all  mankind,  is 
a  belief  which  underlies  the  very  first  section  of  the 
Priestly  Record  (Gen.  i.),  and  how  much  in  earnest 
the  narrator  is,  appears  from  the  fact  that  he  reports 
an  “  everlasting  covenant  ”  between  the  true  God  on 
the  one  hand  and  mankind  represented  by  Noah  and 

216 


Judaism 


2 1 7 


his  three  sons  on  the  other  (Gen.  ix.,  i-i 7).  It  is 
this  “  everlasting  covenant  ”  which  a  late  prophet 
declares  that  the  earth’s  inhabitants  have  broken,* 
and  which  one  of  the  “  pillars  ”  of  the  early  Christian 
community  takes  as  the  basis  of  the  new  elementary 
law  of  Gentile  Christianity.!  The  priestly  narrator 
in  Genesis  does  not,  of  course,  mean  that  the  simple 
precept  of  respect  for  life,  and  especially  for  human 
life,  will  suffice  as  the  sole  constitutional  principle  of 
civil  society,  but  he  is  well  assured  that  the  neglect 
of  it  will  bring  the  wrath  of  God  upon  the  offending 
nations.  Does  not  this  throw  a  fresh  light  on  that 
otherwise  startling  statement  in  the  Ninth  Psalm  \  : 

“  The  wicked  will  depart  to  the  nether  world — 

All  the  nations  that  are  forgetful  of  God  ”  ? 

It  is  the  barbarity  of  the  foreign  oppressors  of  the 
Jews  which  forces  this  bold  announcement  from  the 
lips  of  the  oppressed.  Israel  personified  knows  that 
God  will  not  allow  His  command  to  be  transgressed 
with  impunity,  more  especially  when  the  very  exist¬ 
ence  of  His  people  is  imperilled.  At  another  point  in 
the  same  psalm  (Ps.  ix.,  11,  12),  the  psalmist  shows 
the  intensity  of  his  faith  by  imagining  himself  in  the 
happy  time  when  Jehovah  will  have  already  inter¬ 
posed.  He  says : 

*  Isa.  xxiv.,  5.  f  Acts  xv.,  20.  J  Ps.  ix.,  17. 


218  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


4/  Sing  praise  to  Jehovah,  whose  throne  is  in  Zion, 
Publish  His  deeds  among  the  nations, 

(Say)  that  the  avenger  of  bloodshed  has  been  mindful 
of  them 

(And)  has  not  forgotten  the  cry  of  the  sufferers.” 

We  see  now  that  there  are  supposed  to  be  two  classes 
of  persons  in  the  non-Jewish  world.  There  are  those 
who  are  so  “forgetful  of  God”  and  His  primaeval  reve¬ 
lation  as  to  touch  the  very  apple  of  His  eye  *  (viz.,  the 
pious  community  of  Israel),  and  there  are  those  who, 
though  as  yet  ignorant,  are  by  no  means  unsuscep¬ 
tible  of  instruction.f  Towards  the  former  class  no 
expressions  of  hostility  seem  too  strong  for  some  of 
the  psalmists  (see  Lecture  III.),  but  towards  the  latter 
we  have  the  kindest  of  words  from  the  poet  and 
teacher  who  wrote  the  songs  on  the  “  Servant.”  The 
latter  writer  had  a  fellow-worker  in  that  accomplished 
narrator  who,  partly  on  a  basis  of  folk-lore,  composed 
the  story  of  Jonah.  Jonah,  son  of  Amittai,  was  a 
missionary  prophet,  who  was  at  first  untrue  to  his 
vocation,  but  afterwards  went  to  Nineveh,  and  sought, 
not  unsuccessfully,  to  move  its  bloodthirsty  people 
to  repentance.  He  is  intended  as  a  type  of  the 
people  of  Israel,  which  in  the  olden  time  had 
neglected  its  missionary  calling  and  as  a  punishment 
had  been  swallowed  up  by  the  dragon  Babylon,  but 

*  Zech.  ii.,  8.  flsa.  xlii.,  4. 


Judaism 


219 


was  now  liberated,  and  summoned  once  more  to 
perform  its  duty. 

A  more  practicable  object,  however,  than  that  sug¬ 
gested  in  Jonah  occurred  to  the  mind  of  another 
earnestly  devout  man.  It  had  reference  to  the 
foreigners  who  had  begun  to  be  attracted  by  the 
religion  of  Jehovah.  These  proselytes  were  above 
moral  or  religious  reproach ;  they  were  zealous  in 
all  legal  duties  known  to  them,  and  especially  in  the 
observance  of  the  Sabbath.  Their  chief  desire  was 
that  expressed  so  beautifully  by  a  psalmist,* — “  to 
dwell  in  the  house  of  Jehovah  all  the  days  of  their 
life,”  i.  e.y  to  settle  at  Jerusalem,  and  to  frequent  the 
temple.  But  they  knew  only  too  well  the  strength 
of  the  opposition  that  was  being  raised  to  their  re¬ 
quest.  Their  unknown  friend  sought  therefore  to 
help  them  by  a  prophecy, f  in  which  God  expressly 
demanded  the  greatest  liberality  towards  those  de¬ 
vout  foreigners  who  were  willing  to  comply  with 
legal  requirements,  on  the  ground  that  His  house 
was  to  be  regarded  as  the  universal  house  of  prayer. 
Though  not  richly  gifted  as  a  writer,  this  good 
and  wise  man  had  at  any  rate  a  sound  religious  in¬ 
sight,  and  the  Jewish  Church  might  well  be  thankful 
that  priests  and  scribes  like  Ezra  were  not  its  only 
directors. 


*  Ps.  xxvii.,  4. 


+  Isa.  lvi.,  1-8. 


220  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


And  again  the  tale-writer  supports  the  prophet. 
There  was  at  Jerusalem  another  friend  of  the  op¬ 
pressed  proselyte,  who  wrote  an  idyllic  story  to  jus¬ 
tify  admitting  into  the  community  any  foreign  women 
who  heartily  adopted  the  nationality  and  religion  of 
their  Jewish  husbands.  On  the  lovely  story  of  Ruth 
I  could  find  it  in  my  heart  to  say  much,  were  it  not 
that  a  much-respected  American  scholar  *  has  already 
placed  the  book  in  its  true  light  before  American 
readers.  The  existence  of  this  undoubtedly  post- 
exilic  book  is  as  important  a  fact  as  the  rigourism  of 
Ezra.  It  shows  that  we  are  right  in  holding  that 
that  great  priest  and  scribe  did  not  gain  an  at  all  com¬ 
plete  victory  over  the  friends  of  mixed  marriages. 
Had  the  intermarriage  of  Jews  and  Moabites  become 
as  a  matter  of  fact  impossible,  such  a  story  could  not 
have  been  written.  But  though  not  impossible,  the 
practice  was  doubtless  frowned  upon  by  the  ortho¬ 
dox,  and  our  author,  who  sympathised  with  oppressed 
Moabite  women,  as  Malachi  sympathised  with  op¬ 
pressed  Jewesses,  devoted  his  skilful  pen  to  their 
cause.  Nor  is  this  all.  A  drier  writer,  with  a  turn 
for  genealogies,  gave  this  popular  tale  a  short  supple¬ 
ment^  the  object  of  which  was  to  introduce  the 
Moabitish  heroine  among  the  ancestors  of  David.  I 

*  Prof.  C.  A.  Briggs,  North  American  Review,  Jan.,  1897 

f  Ruth  iv.,  18-22 


Judaism 


221 


am  sorry  that  so  good  a  man  as  the  Chronicler  did 
not  take  the  hint.  We  look  in  vain  in  his  genealogy 
of  David  for  the  name  of  Ruth.  Possibly  he  was 
afraid  to  recognise  this  supposed  Moabitish  wife  of 
Boaz,  who  might  be  taken  to  have  conveyed  a  taint 
to  her  posterity ;  for  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  he 
ascribes  the  wickedness  of  King  Rehoboam  to  the 
Ammonitish  extraction  of  that  king’s  mother.* 

The  generosity  of  prophet  and  tale-writer  must 
not,  however,  be  exaggerated.  Whatever  pride  a 
foreigner  had  taken  in  his  birth  or  riches  or  wisdom 
had  to  be  laid  aside  when  he  became  a  proselyte. 
The  only  nobility  worth  having  was  to  be  of  the 
Jewish  religion,  and  the  best  use  of  riches  was  to 
“  beautify  the  place  of  God’s  sanctuary,  and  to  make 
His  footstool  glorious  ”  f  ;  while,  as  to  wisdom,  what¬ 
ever  licence  might  be  allowed  to  a  Jew  who  had  re¬ 
turned  to  Palestine  after  a  lengthened  foreign  sojourn, 
the  only  temper  befitting  a  proselyte,  who  had  so 
much  to  learn  before  he  could  be  perfect  in  the 
Scriptures,  was  that  expressed  in  the  words  : 

“  Not  haughty,  Jehovah,  is  my  heart, 

Not  lofty  are  my  eyes  ; 

Neither  move  I  amidst  great  matters 
And  things  too  arduous  for  me.”  J 

Nor  is  it  likely  that  there  were  many  proselytes  in 

*  2  Chron.  xii.,  13,  14.  f  Isa.  lx.,  13.  \  Ps.  cxxxi.,  1. 


222  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Judaea,  even  when  the  relations  between  Persia  and 
the  Jews  were  most  friendly,  and  at  a  later  day  the 
disturbed  condition  of  the  Persian  Empire  must  have 
been  adverse  to  any  strong  Judaising  movement, 
whether  in  Palestine  or  elsewhere.  The  Jews  them¬ 
selves,  too,  became  more  and  more  bitter  towards 
foreigners,  and  if  the  two  controversial  passages 
against  idolatry  inserted  by  a  post-exilic  editor  in 
the  genuine  word  of  the  Second  Isaiah*  belong  to 
the  Persian  period,  we  can  hardly  wonder  if  the 
heathen  retained  their  aversion  to  Judaism,  for  the 
tone  is  unconciliatory  and  sarcastic,  and  there  is  no 
positive  religious  teaching  such  as  might  attract 
thoughtful  inquirers.  Circumstances  were  indeed 
most  unfavourable  to  the  missionary  ideal  of  the 
great  “  Servant  ’’-songs,  though  one  is  thankful  to 
record  that  in  the  Fifty-first  Psalm  pious  Israel  ac¬ 
knowledges  its  obligation  to  teach  God’s  ways  to 
sinners  and  apostates  : 

“  Gladden  me  again  with  Thy  deliverance, 

And  uphold  me  with  a  zealous  spirit. 

Then  will  I  teach  apostates  Thy  ways, 

So  that  sinners  turn  back  to  Thee.”  f 

By  “  sinners  ”  and  “  apostates  ”  the  psalmist  means 
unfaithful  Jews. 

*Isa.  xliv.,  9-20;  xlvi.,  6-8  ;  cf.  Ps.  cxv.,  4-8. 
f  Ps.  li. ,  12,  13. 


Judaism 


223 


It  is  in  the  119th  Psalm  (a  work  of  the  Greek 
period)  that  we  find  the  passages  most  suggestive  of 
missions  to  the  non-Jewish  world.  They  occur  in 
two  neighbouring  couplets : 

“  And  snatch  not  the  word  of  truth  utterly  out  of  my 
mouth, 

For  I  wait  for  Thy  judgments.” 

“  And  I  will  speak  of  Thine  admonitions  before  kings, 

And  will  not  be  ashamed.”  * 

The  former  couplet  reminds  us  of  the  “  covenant  ” 
in  Isaiah  lix.,  21,  according  to  which  the  words  put 
into  the  mouth  of  the  true  Israel  shall  never  depart 
from  it,  i.  e.,  Israel  shall  be  preserved  forever  in  or¬ 
der  to  be  the  faithful  preacher  of  Jehovah’s  law.f 
In  the  latter  couplet  the  speaker  (pious  Israel  per¬ 
sonified)  may  perhaps  mean  that  he  will  venture  as  a 
missionary  into  the  presence  of  heathen  kings,  as 
Jonah  is  said  to  have  done,  and  this  may  have  been 
suggested  by  some  recent  attempt  to  place  Judaism 
in  a  favourable  light  before  a  king  of  Egypt  or  Syria. 
I  think  myself,  however,  that  a  more  modest  profes¬ 
sion  is  made.  Israel  expresses  its  willingness  to  bear 
witness  to  revealed  truth  before  kings  under  changed 
circumstances.  At  present  such  an  heroic  venture 
is  impossible.  At  present  Israel  is  too  impatient  for 

*  Ps.  cxix.,  43,  46. 

f  There  is  an  allusion  to  the  soliloquies  of  that  great  typical  mis¬ 
sionary — the  Servant  of  Jehovah. 


224  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


judgment  to  be  executed  on  its  persecutors,*  and 
suffers  too  much  from  the  attempts  of  heathen 
teachers  to  draw  away  its  own  members  to  heathen¬ 
ism,  to  think  seriously  of  missionary  enterprises  in 
heathendom.  The  most  that  it  can  do  is  to  cultivate 
faith  in  the  perfection  of  the  true  religion. 

“  I  have  more  insight  than  all  my  teachers, 

For  Thine  admonitions  are  my  meditation.” 

“  The  law  of  God’s  mouth  is  better  unto  me 
Than  thousands  of  gold  and  silver.”  f 

We  find,  however,  distinct  references  to  proselytes 
in  two  psalms:);  placed  very  close  to  the  119th.  An 
invitation  to  trust  in  God,  and  to  declare  His  loving¬ 
kindness,  is  addressed  to  three  classes  of  persons, 
viz.,  Israel,  the  house  of  Aaron,  and  the  fearers  of 
Jehovah.  “Israel”  is  used  elsewhere  as  an  ex¬ 
pression  for  the  laity  ;  the  house  of  Aaron  are  the 
priests;  the  “fearers  of  Jehovah”  must  surely  be 
the  proselytes,  an  identification  which  has  later 
usage  in  its  favour,  and  can  only  be  doubted  by 
those  who  regard  Psalms  cxv.,  cxviii.,  and  cxxxv.  as 
works  of  the  Persian  period — a  very  improbable 
hypothesis. 

It  may  therefore,  I  think,  be  assumed  that  at  some 
time  in  the  Greek  period,  probably  during  the  rule 

*Ps.  cxix.,  84.  f  Ps.  cxix.,  99,  72.  fPs.  cxvi.,  cxviii. 


Judaism 


225 


of  the  Ptolemies,  and  again  after  the  first  victories 
of  the  Maccabees,  a  number  of  foreigners  joined  the 
Palestinian  Jewish  community.  Their  motives  no 
doubt  were  various.  There  were  many  who  thirsted 
for  “  living  waters  ”  which  no  other  religion  pos¬ 
sessed  *  ;  the  comparative  spirituality  of  Jewish 
monotheism  answered  to  a  want  of  the  age.f  There 
were  others,  perhaps,  who  felt  still  more  strongly  a 
desire  for  some  bond  of  union  which  would  be  su¬ 
perior  to  the  disintegrating  influences  of  a  crushing, 
despotic  rule.  Such  a  bond  the  Jewish  society  with 
its  multiplying  branches  seemed,  and  rightly  seemed, 
to  furnish. 

But  the  most  remarkable  of  all  the  testimonies  to 
the  presence  of  foreigners  in  the  no  longer  merely 
national  Jewish  Church  are  those  in  the  appendix  to 
Isaiah  xix.  (vv.  18-25)  and  in  Psalm  lxxxvii.  In  both 
passages  the  belief  is  expressed  that  not  only  iso¬ 
lated  individuals,  but  whole  communities,  will  enter 
the  Jewish  fold.  No  doubt  this  was  a  great  illusion, 
but  it  implies  that  numerous  conversions  had  already 
taken  place,  and  that  not  only  Bashan  and  Galilee,;): 
but  cities  and  districts  in  the  various  countries  men- 

*  Ps.  lxv.,  2  :  “  O  Thou  that  hearest  prayer  !  to  Thee  doth  all  flesh 
come.” 

f  At  an  earlier  period  we  find  an  Ammonite  (Tobiah)  among  the 
Samaritan  worshippers  of  Jehovah. 

\  Cf.  Ps.  lxviii.  22  (?)  ;  1  Macc.  v.  14-54. 


226  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


tioned,  had  become  in  an  appreciable  degree  Juda- 
ised.  I  will  quote  the  second  passage  in  a  form 
which  approximates,  I  hope,  to  the  writer’s  meaning. 
It  is  a  poem  in  three  stanzas  of  five  lines  each. 

“  Thou  hast  founded  her  on  the  holy  mountains  ! 
Jehovah  loves  the  gates  of  Zion 
More  than  all  (other)  dwellings  of  Jacob. 

Gloriously  will  I  praise  thee, 

Thou  city  of  God  ! 

“  Rahab  and  Babylon  I  will  celebrate  as  her  friends  ; 
Behold,  Philistia  and  Tyre, 

With  the  people  of  Cush — each  of  these  was  born  there. 
Jehovah  will  note  in  the  register  of  peoples, 

This  one  (and  that  one)  were  born  there. 

“  And  Zion  each  one  calls  Mother, 

Yea,  each  one  was  born  therein  ; 

And  (God)  Himself  establishes  her. 

And  (this  anthem)  will  be  sung  in  the  congregations, 
All  my  fountains  are  in  thee.” 

It  is  the  eulogy  of  Zion  as  the  metropolis  of  an 
ideally  catholic  church  which  we  have  before  us. 
The  psalmist  has  absorbed  all  the  great  ideas  of  the 
Second  Isaiah  and  the  Songs  of  the  Servant,  and 
finds  them  becoming  realised  in  his  own  happy 
experience.  Whether  by  preaching,  or  simply  by 
letting  its  light  shine,  the  once  despised  Israel  is 
now  attracting  Palestinians,  Egyptians,  Ethiopians, 
Babylonians,  in  such  numbers  that  a  day  seems  com- 


Judaism 


227 


ing  when  all  mankind  will  be  Jews,  i.e.y  when  reli¬ 
gion  will  unite  more  than  the  accidental  differences 
of  language  or  national  character  separate.  The 
Second  Isaiah  seems  to  anticipate  that  foreigners 
will  only  be  able  to  become  Jews  by  sacrificing  their 
national  peculiarities.  But  our  poet,  and  the  author 
of  the  appendix  to  Isaiah  xix.,  clearly  anticipate 
that  Egypt  and  Babylon  will  remain  Egypt  and 
Babylon,*  even  when  their  higher  life  and  their 
truest  happiness  are  derived  from  Zion. 

These  two  passages  (the  psalm  and  the  prophecy) 
represent  the  high-water  mark  of  religious  liberality 
in  Palestine.  For  a  moment  it  seemed  possible  that 
Jewish  theology  might  be  purged  from  its  darker 
elements.  But  this  was  not  to  be.  It  would  lead 
me  too  far  to  inquire  into  the  causes  of  this  impossi¬ 
bility.  The  time  warns  me  to  turn  aside  to  a  still 
more  interesting  subject,  which  takes  us  into  the 
very  heart  of  the  higher  Jewish  theology,  and  is  sug¬ 
gested  by  that  congregational  anthem  in  the  Eighty- 
seventh  Psalm,  “  All  my  fountains  are  in  thee.” 

What,  I  would  ask,  are  the  fountains  in  Zion  which 
attracted  so  many  pious  proselytes  ?  The  image  is 
a  speaking  one.  Who  does  not  remember  the  beau¬ 
tiful  old  Hebrew  song  in  the  early  history,  begin¬ 
ning,  “Spring  up,  O  well;  sing  ye  to  it,”f  as  if  by 

*  See  especially  Isa.  xix.,  24,  25.  f  Num.  xxi.,  17,  18. 


228  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


song  the  water  hidden  in  the  ground  could  be 
coaxed  into  appearing?  But  the  water  which  the 
gracious  Mother  Zion  gives  her  children  is  no  ordi¬ 
nary  living  water.  Whosoever  drinks  of  the  Abana 
and  the  Pharpar  will  thirst  again.  But  he  that 
drinks  from  Zion’s  fountains  will  never  thirst ;  that 
precious  water  will  be  in  him  as  a  well  springing  up 
into  everlasting  life.*  Here  is  a  fine  passage  which 
expresses  these  ideas  very  clearly,  and  notice  how  in 
the  first  couplet  the  spiritual  privileges  referred  to 
are  thrown  open  to  all  mankind : 

“  (In  Thee)  do  the  race  of  men  (put  their  trust), 

In  the  shadow  of  Thy  wings  do  they  find  refuge. 

They  feast  upon  the  delicacies  of  Thy  house, 

And  of  the  river  of  Thy  pleasures  Thou  givest  them 
their  drink. 

For  with  Thee  is  the  fountain  of  life  ; 

By  Thy  light  do  we  see  light.”  f 

The  last  couplet  is  also  important.  It  shows  that 
there  are  two  kinds  of  light  and  life,  and  that  only 
in  the  temple  can  the  higher  light  and  life  be 
obtained.  What  this  meant  to  the  noblest  Jews, 
we  shall  see  later.  It  is  plain  that  the  old  phrase¬ 
ology  is  being  stretched  to  admit  new  ideas.  No 
doubt  we  must  be  careful  not  to  spiritualise  too 
much.  The  blessings  hoped  for  by  pious  worship- 


*  See  John  iv.,  13,  14. 


f  Ps.  xxxvi.,  8-10. 


Judaism 


229 


pers  are  still,  to  a  large  extent,  material.  To  some 
extent  to  all  men  even  now,  and  still  more  to  those 
who  shall  be  alive  at  the  great  Judgment  Day, 
material  prosperity  will  be  granted  as  the  reward  of 
faithful  obedience.  But  the  new  longing  for  moral 
oneness  with  God  as  certainly  tends  to  become 
predominant  over  the  old  longing  for  material  hap¬ 
piness. 

But  let  us  be  more  definite.  Was  there  no  dawn¬ 
ing  sense  of  a  second  life  after  the  sleep  of  death — 
a  second  life  which  could  be  measured  by  hundreds 
of  years,  or  even  perhaps  not  be  measured  at  all  ? 
Certainly  from  the  close  of  the  Persian  period  some 
men  began  “faintly”  to  “trust  the  larger  hope.” 
It  was  at  this  time  that  the  following  strongly  con¬ 
trasting  sentences  were  uttered  by  a  prophetic  or 
apocalyptic  writer : 

“  The  dead  will  not  live  ;  the  shades  will  not  arise  ; 
therefore  Thou  didst  punish,  Thou  didst  destroy  them, 
and  madest  all  their  memory  to  perish.”  (This  refers  to 
the  dead  oppressors  of  Israel,  who  are  no  longer  terrible, 
because  the  dead  (heathen)  cannot  live  again.)  “  Thy 
dead  shall  arise  ;  they  that  dwell  in  the  dust  shall  awake 
and  sing  for  joy.  For  thy  dew  is  a  dew  of  lights,  and 
the  land  shall  bring  forth  the  shades.”  * 

This  second  passage  is  addressed  to  Israel,  and  im¬ 
plies  that  the  belief  in  a  resurrection  of  pious  Jews 

*  Isa.  xxvi.,  14,  19. 


230  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


had  already  found  some  acceptance.  It  even  ap¬ 
pears  that  mystical  expressions  had  been  coined  to 
symbolise  this  belief.  The  Resurrection  is  ascribed 
to  a  dew  which  descends  from  that  highest  heaven, 
where  are  those  dazzling  bright  lights  amidst  which 
God  dwells.  It  is  possible,  indeed,  that  this  great 
boon  was  limited  to  those  who  had  died  for  the 
faith,  but  even  if  this  were  the  case  at  first,  we  may 
assume  that  the  humble  confessors  of  daily  life 
would  soon  look  for  the  same  privilege  as  the 
martyrs. 

About  170  years  later,  the  belief  was  restated  in 
still  more  definite  terms.  The  author  of  Daniel 
says  that  in  a  time  of  unparalleled  trouble  the 
Jewish  people  will  be  delivered,  and  also  that  “  many 
of  those  who  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  ground  will 
awake,  some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some  to  shame 
and  everlasting  abhorrence,”  and  that  a  reward  of 
special  splendour  is  reserved  for  the  teachers  of 
righteousness.*  After  this  time  the  evidences  of  the 
belief  in  the  Resurrection  are  abundant,  though  the 
Sadducees,  like  the  philosophic  author  of  Ecclesi¬ 
astes,  still  held  out  against  this  foreign-looking 
innovation. 

There  is,  however,  no  early  evidence  for  a  belief  in 
conscious  communion  of  the  soul  with  God  between 

*  Dan.  xii.,  1-3. 


Judaism 


231 


death  and  the  Resurrection,  and  it  was  a  long  time 
before  the  abolition  of  death  for  righteous  Jews  in 
the  Messianic  age  became  a  general  expectation. 
The  last  chapter  but  one  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah, 
which  dates  from  the  age  of  Nehemiah,  in  a  descrip¬ 
tion  of  Messianic  felicity,  only  states  that  weeping  and 
lamentation  will  be  no  more,  and  that  the  youngest 
man  who  dies  in  Jerusalem  will  reach  the  age  of  a 
hundred.*  A  little  later  we  find  another  prophetic 
writer  expressing  in  choicer  language  the  sure  hope 
of  the  abolition  of  sorrow.  He  calls  sorrow  “  the 
veil  that  is  spread  over  all  peoples,”  and  adds  that 
“  God  will  wipe  away  tears  from  off  all  faces.”  f 
More  this  pious  optimist  does  not  know  how  to  say. 
But  a  later  writer,  whose  faith  in  God  is  such  that  he 
boldly  hopes  for  the  most  stupendous  of  boons,  has 
inserted  this  short  passage,  which  interrupts  the 
context  indeed,  but  must  have  justified  itself  to 
readers  by  its  sweetness:  “He  will  annihilate  death 
for  ever.”  X  This  is  the  logical  outcome  of  the  faith 
in  the  Resurrection,  and  the  Jews,  as  soon  as  they 
saw  this,  vied  with  their  Zoroastrian  brethren  in 
the  earnestness  with  which  they  accepted  it. 

We  could  not,  therefore,  be  surprised  if  we  found 
in  Job,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiasticus,  and  the  Psalter 
more  or  less  distinct  expression  of  the  new  beliefs. 

*  Isa.  lxv.,  19,  20.  f  Isa.  xxv.,  7,  8.  J  Isa.  xxv.  7  (line  1). 


232  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


For  no  part  of  any  of  these  books  can  be  earlier 
than  the  age  of  Nehemiah,  and  a  great  part  even  of 
the  Psalter  must  be  later  than  this  period.  Even 
Ben  Sira,  however,  the  devout-minded  author  of 
Ecclesiasticus,  though  he  holds  theoretically  that 
“that  which  comes  from  heaven  returns  to  heaven,”  * 
yet,  as  a  practical  man,  recommends  cultivating 
cheerfulness  on  the  ground  that  there  is  “no  coming 
up  again  ”  from  the  grave. f 

Turning  next  to  Proverbs,  we  find  that  not  one 
of  its  supposed  references  to  Immortality  is  trust¬ 
worthy.  The  most  striking  passage,  if  correctly 
read,  would  be  this  (I  quote  from  the  Revised 
Version) : 

“  In  the  way  of  righteousness  is  life, 

And  in  the  pathway  thereof  there  is  no  death.”  \ 

But  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  second 
line  should  rather  be  read  thus : 

“  But  the  way  of  the  abominable  leads  to  death.” 

The  true  view  of  the  proverb-writers  is  that  ex¬ 
pressed  in  the  couplet : 

*  Ecclus.  xl.,  11,  12. 

f  Ecclus.  xxxviii.,  20,  21.  There  is,  indeed,  a  passage  which  states 
that  “  those  who  do  things  that  please  the  Lord  will  receive  the  fruit 
of  the  tree  of  immortality.”  But  this  is  not  found  in  the  best  Greek 
MSS.,  and  forms  part  of  an  interpolation. 

$  Prov.  xii.,  28. 


Judaism 


233 


“The  fear  of  Jehovah  prolongs  days, 

But  the  years  of  the  wicked  shall  be  shortened.”  * 

In  spite  of  what  is  urged  in  the  Book  of  Job,  they 
believed  that  religion  lengthened  life  and  irreligion 
shortened  it,  while  the  final  proof  of  the  moral  gov¬ 
ernment  of  the  world  would  be  given  at  a  great 
crisis  (the  Messianic  Judgment),  when  destruction 
would  come  on  the  wicked  as  a  whirlwind. f  It  is 
true  that  this  attitude  of  the  wise  men  might  con¬ 
ceivably  be  due  to  educational  reserve.  To  draw 
moral  arguments  from  an  unverifiable  idea  of  quite 
recent  origin  might  seem  injudicious,  as  tending  to 
promote  a  too  enthusiastic  habit  of  mind.  But 
nothing  can  diminish  the  force  of  these  affecting 
lines  from  a  speech  of  Job  : 

“  For  (hope)  exists  for  a  tree, 

(And  for  a  fig-tree  there  remains)  a  future  ; 

If  it  be  cut  down,  it  will  sprout  again, 

And  its  shoots  will  not  be  wanting. 

“  But  when  man  dies,  he  passes  away, 

He  breathes  his  last,  and  where  is  he  ? 

Till  the  heavens  wear  out,  he  will  not  awake, 

Nor  arouse  himself  out  of  his  sleep.”  J 

And  even  more  thrilling  is  the  denial  of  a  second 

*Prov.  x.,  27  ;  cf.  iii.,  2,  16  ;  ix.,  11. 

f  Prov.  i.,  27. 

X  Job  xiv.,  7-12.  The  first  stanza  in  the  received  text  is  proba¬ 
bly  incomplete. 


234  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


life  which  follows,  because  the  speaker  admits  that 
he  would  so  gladly  think  otherwise.  There  is,  in 
fact,  no  passage  in  the  whole  Bible  which  more 
clearly  proves  the  congeniality  of  the  greatest  of 
all  hopes,  at  any  rate  to  Semitic  human  nature,  and 
of  course  I  need  not  say  that  Aryans  and  Semites 
on  this  as  on  some  other  points  closely  resemble 
each  other. 

“  Oh  that  Thou  wouldst  put  me  in  ward  in  Sheol, 

That  Thou  wouldst  hide  me  till  Thy  wrath  were  spent, 
That  Thou  wouldst  appoint  me  a  time  and  remember 
me, 

(And)  that  a  man,  though  dead,  could  live  again  ! 

“  Through  my  long  hard  service  then  would  I  wait 
Till  my  relief  should  come, 

Till  Thou  shouldst  call,  and  receive  my  response, 

Till  Thou  shouldst  long  after  the  work  of  Thy  hands. 

“  But  now  Thou  countest  each  step  that  I  take, 

Thou  wilt  not  pass  over  my  sin  ; 

Thou  hast  sealed  up  in  the  bag  my  transgression, 

Thou  hast  secured  with  wax  mine  iniquity.”* 

The  beauty  of  this  is  that  the  longing  expressed  by 
Job  is,  I  will  not  say  so  impersonal,  but  so  unself¬ 
ish  ;  he  craves  to  live  again  in  order  to  enjoy  the 
happiness  of  conscious  communion  with  God,  and 
would  gladly  wait  in  the  drear  city  of  Death  till  the 
divine  call  came,  if  a  second  life  for  man  were  only 

*  Job  xiv.,  13-17. 


Judaism 


235 


possible.  He  knows  indeed  (or  thinks  that  he  knows) 
that  the  idea  lacks  foundation,  and  yet  he  cannot 
help  luxuriating  in  it  for  a  moment,  for  it  is  so  sweet. 
But  it  is  very  significant  that  he  never  refers  to  it 
again.  The  supposed  reference  to  the  Resurrection 
in  chapter  xix.  (see  Lecture  V.)  is  due  partly  to 
corruption  of  the  text,  partly  to  the  instinctive 
belief  of  the  later  Jews  that  so  precious  a  hope  must 
have  found  a  place  in  the  wise  old  poem  of  Job. 
The  passage  being  mutilated,  the  editor  in  the  sim¬ 
plicity  of  his  heart  endeavoured  to  fill  it  up  in  a 
worthy  manner.  But  what  he  produced  is  certainly 
not  worthy  of  the  author  of  Job  as  a  specimen  of 
Hebrew  writing. 

This  result  need  not  greatly  surprise  us.  Profes¬ 
sional  students  and  teachers  are  afraid  of  opening 
the  door  to  religious  enthusiasm.  But  in  hymns 
intended  for  congregational  use  a  larger  hospitality 
to  new  beliefs  may  be  expected,  especially  in  the 
Greek  period.  To  decide  whether  this  expectation 
is  correct,  we  must  not  rest  satisfied  with  the  form 
in  which  the  Hebrew  Psalter  has  reached  us.  Fur¬ 
ther  exegetical  progress  is  only  possible  as  a  con¬ 
sequence  of  a  searching  revision  of  the  text  of  the 
psalms.  Such  a  revision,  with  the  assistance  of  my 
predecessors,  I  have  endeavoured  to  make,  and  I 
shall  now  build  on  the  results  which  I  have  reached. 


236  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


The  chief  passages  which  have  to  be  considered 
occur  in  Psalms  xvi.,  xvii.,  xlix.,  lxxiii.  These  are 
of  extreme  interest,  and,  as  they  stand  in  the  re¬ 
ceived  text,  convey  the  impression  that  the  writers 
had  had  an  intuition  of  a  second  life  for  the  individ¬ 
ual.  More  especially,  if  we  take  the  passages  in  con¬ 
nection  with  parallel  passages  in  the  Psalms  of 
Solomon  and  with  statements  in  the  Book  of  Enoch, 
the  reference  to  a  future  life  seems  difficult  indeed 
to  controvert. 

If,  however,  we  approach  these  passages  in  the 
course  of  searching  textual  revision  our  confidence 
in  this  conclusion  will  be  considerably  shaken.  Take 
Psalm  xlix.,  for  instance.  If  the  text  is  approxi¬ 
mately  correct,  this  psalm  is  closely  parallel  to  chap¬ 
ters  cii.  and  ciii.  of  the  Book  of  Enoch.*  These 
passages  are  a  protest  against  the  old  Hebrew  no¬ 
tion  of  Shedl,  or  the  nether  world,  which  encourages 
the  party  of  the  wicked  rich  men  in  their  oppression 
of  the  righteous  poor.  And  such  a  protest  we  find 
in  the  Forty-ninth  Psalm,  according  to  the  received 
text.  The  rich  man  who  hews  out  for  himself  a 
grand  sepulchre,  considers  that  he  will  have  a  cor¬ 
respondingly  grand  resting-place  in  Shedl.  Of  pun¬ 
ishment  for  his  oppression  of  the  poor  he  does  not 
dream.  In  life  and  in  death  he  will  be  equally  the 

*  Cf.  Lecture  V. 


Judaism 


237 


spoiled  child  of  fortune,  the  heir  of  all  such  good 
things  as  are  to  be  had.  To  this  the  psalmist  is 
made  to  reply  that  the  wicked  rich  man  is  profoundly 
mistaken.  The  relative  position  of  his  own  class 
and  of  the  righteous  poor  will  be  inverted.  The 
rich  man  will  go  down  to  join  his  fathers  in  Shedl, 
but  without  his  pomp,  while  the  poor,  upright  man 
will  be  rescued  from  the  grasp  of  Shedl,  and  the 
company  to  which  he  belongs  will  trample  on  the 
graves  of  the  wicked  when  the  dawn  of  the  greatest 
of  days  appears. 

Plausible  as  this  interpretation  is,  I  am  afraid  that 
it  is  incorrect.  Textual  criticism  shows  that  the  con¬ 
trast  in  the  foreground  is  not  between  the  fate  of 
all  rich  men  as  individuals  and  that  of  all  poor  men, 
but  between  that  of  all  rich  men  without  exception 
and  that  of  the  community  of  the  pious,  without 
special  reference  to  this  or  that  individual.  Of  the 
fate  of  the  individual  poor  man  nothing  is  said.* 
The  community  would  live  on,  even  though  all  its 
present  members  should  die.  Spiritual  self-forget¬ 
fulness  is  incumbent  on  a  pious  Jew ;  he  is  absorbed 
in  the  welfare  of  the  community  to  which  he  belongs  ; 
the  community  will,  he  is  fully  persuaded,  enjoy 

*An  incidental  allusion,  may,  however  be  found  in  v.  10.  The 
“  wise’'  who  are  expressly  said  to  “  die”  are  of  course  righteous  and 
presumably  poor. 


238  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


eternal  life.  These,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  are  the 
words  of  the  psalmist,  or  rather  of  the  pious  com¬ 
munity  personified  : 

“  This  is  the  way  to  their  stumbling, 

And  the  road  to  their  fall  which  they  run." 

With  these  words  the  poet  begins  a  new  section. 
He  describes  how  the  wicked  rich  men  run  heedlessly 
into  the  arms  of  ruin.  Then  he  continues  : 

“  Like  sheep,  they  sink  into  She61  ; 

Death  rules  them,  terrors  affright  them  ; 

They  go  down  straight  into  the  grave, 

Sheol  is  their  mansion  for  ever. 

(But)  surely  my  soul  God  will  set  free, 

For  from  the  hand  of  Sheol  will  He  take  me.”  * 

The  Seventy-third  Psalm  is  closely  parallel  to  the 
Forty-ninth  It  does  not  give  such  a  graphic  de¬ 
scription  of  the  fate  of  the  wicked,  but,  judging 
from  the  received  text,  it  draws  the  same  contrast 
between  the  future  of  individual  rich  men  and  indi¬ 
vidual  poor  men.  The  Jewish  paraphrase  (Targum) 
actually  finds  a  reference  to  the  Resurrection,  and 
Christian  interpreters  have,  by  no  means  fantastically, 
found  one  to  a  Beatific  Vision  of  God  immediately 
after  death.  The  latter  view  is  especially  attractive. 
The  story  of  Enoch,  as  we  know,  was  popular  in  the 
post-exilic  period,  and  it  would  be  extremely  natural, 

*  Ps.  xlix.,  14-16. 


Judaism 


239 


in  an  age  of  growing  individualism,  for  pious  theists 
to  claim  for  themselves  the  privilege  of  Enoch,  who, 
as  the  traditional  story  said,  “  disappeared,  for  God 
had  taken  him.”  *  The  words  : 

“  Thou  wilt  guide  me  according  to  Thy  counsel, 
And  afterwards  take  me  to  glory,”  f 

seem  not  unworthy  of  the  poet  who  says  a  little 
later  that,  though  his  outward  form  had  wasted 
away,  the  believer  would  still  have  God  for  his  in¬ 
alienable  portion.  And  yet  this  attractive  theory, 
which  has  survived  the  attacks  of  exegetical  oppo¬ 
nents,  has,  I  fear,  to  be  abandoned  on  grounds  of 
textual  criticism.  I  will  read  a  translation  of  the 
most  important  verses  which  I  believe  to  be  based 
on  an  unassailable  text.  There  is  a  contrast,  as  you 
will  see,  between  the  fates  of  the  righteous  and  of 
the  wicked. 

“  How  are  they  [viz.,  the  wicked]  brought  to  desolation 
in  a  moment, 

Utterly  swept  away  by  terrors  (of  death)  ! 

As  a  dream  when  one  has  awaked, 

So,  Lord,  when  Thou  art  aroused,  Thou  wilt  despise 
their  phantom-like  form. 

**  And  yet  I  am  continually  with  Thee  ; 

Thou  hast  taken  hold  of  my  right  hand  : 

*  Gen.  v.,  24. 

f  According  to  Kautzsch’s  new  (German)  translation  of  the  Old 
Testament. 


240  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


According  to  Thy  counsel  Thou  wilt  guide  me, 

And  make  known  to  me  the  path  of  glory.”  * 

Who  the  speaker  is,  and  what  the  “  path  of  glory  ” 
means,  I  will  explain  presently.  But  it  must  already 
be  clear  that  the  second  line  of  the  last  couplet  is 
parallel  to  the  first,  and  that  both  lines  refer  to  some 
uniquely  great  experience  upon  this  material  earth. 

We  now  turn  to  the  Seventeenth  Psalm,  the  re¬ 
ceived  text  of  which  permits  a  reference  to  a  Vision 
of  God  after  death.  Indeed,  I  may  even  say  that  it 
favours  such  a  reference,  for  a  contrast  appears  to 
be  drawn  f  between  the  speaker,  who  hopes  to  see 
God  “  at  the  awaking,”  and  the  “  men  of  the  world, 
whose  portion  is  in  this  life.”  And  yet,  a  strict 
textual  criticism  compels  us  to  abandon  this  theory. 
What  the  psalmist  wrote  may  not  be  in  all  points 
certain.  But  the  following  gives,  I  am  sure,  no  in¬ 
correct  view  of  the  meaning  : 

“  Up,  Jehovah,  confront  him,  make  him  bow  down  ; 

Rescue  my  soul  from  the  wicked,  Jehovah  ! 

Their  portion  give  unto  them — their  share  of  (Thy) 
wrath  ; 

Fill  their  body  with  Thy  stored-up  punishments  ! 

*  Ps.  lxxiii.,  19,  20,  23,  24.  The  rendering  of  Wellhausen  and 
Furness  in  the  Polychrome  Bible  is  based  on  a  correction  which  hardly 
touches  the  root  of  the  evil. 

f  So,  at  any  rate,  in  the  English  version. 


Judaism 


241 


“  As  for  me,  in  mine  innocence  I  shall  behold  any  face, 
I  shall  feast  mine  eyes  when  thy  zeal  awakes.”* 

The  speaker  now  becomes,  not  an  individual  Is¬ 
raelite,  but  the  Jewish  people,  over  which  Jehovah 
says  that  He  watches  as  the  “  apple  of  His  eye.”  f 
One  more  passage  only  remains — Psalm  xvi.,  10, 
11.  The  received  text  is  here  quite  unobjectionable  ; 
it  may  be  translated  thus  : 

“  For  Thou  wilt  not  yield  my  soul  to  the  nether  world, 
Nor  wilt  Thou  suffer  Thy  pious  one  to  see  the  pit. 
Thou  wilt  make  known  to  me  the  path  of  life  ; 

Before  Thy  face  is  abundance  of  joys, 

Delights  are  in  Thy  right  hand  for  evermore.”  J 

Now  it  has  always  been  felt  that  the  case  for  what  I 
may  call  the  mystic  interpretation  was  weaker  in 
this  passage  than  in  those  which  we  have  been 
hitherto  considering.  The  phrase  “  the  path  of  life  ” 
in  Proverbs  §  is  generally  supposed  to  mean  that 
course  of  action  which  leads  to  a  happy  life ;  and 
certainly  “joy  before  the  face  of  Jehovah,”  and 
gifts  from  His  hand,  are  assigned  in  Psalm  xxi.  to  an 
earthly  king  [ ;  while  to  be  delivered  from  Shedl 
may  merely  mean  to  escape  from  peril  of  death. 

*  Ps.  xvii.,  13-15. 
f  Ps.  xvii.,  8  ;  cf .  Deut.  xxxii.,  11. 

\  Ps.  xvi.,  10,  11. 

§  Prov.  ii. ,  19  ;  v.,  5,  6  ;  cf.  x.,  17. 

|  Ps.  xxi.,  6. 

16 


242  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Hence  many  critics  have  supposed  the  meaning  of 
the  passage  to  be  this — that  the  individual  who  is 
taken  to  be  the  speaker  will  be  delivered  out  of  his 
present  distress,  and  recover  the  blissful  conscious¬ 
ness  of  the  divine  favour.  Others  have  felt  that 
this  view  does  injustice  to  the  grandeur  and  solem¬ 
nity  of  the  passage,  and  I  so  fully  agree  with  them 
that,  if  the  received  text  of  the  three  other  passages 
were  correct,  I  should  not  hesitate  to  find  in  all  four 
alike  a  reference  to  the  hope  of  Immortality.  It  is 
no  objection  to  this  view  that  it  may  involve  sup¬ 
posing  that  the  psalmist  passes  over  the  death  of 
the  righteous,  and  represents  future  blessedness 
as  the  sequel  of  present  obedience  and  faith. 
For  if  death  is  merely  being  received  to  God’s 
glorious  presence,  according  to  the  ordinary  inter¬ 
pretation  of  Psalm  lxxiii.,  24,  there  is  no  reason  why 
death  should  not  be  passed  over,  and  it  is  certain 
that  the  idea  of  a  foretaste  of  rewards  and  punish¬ 
ments  prior  to  the  Judgment  was  familiar  to  the 
later  Jews.  But  we  have  seen  that  the  three  other 
passages,  correctly  read,  do  not  permit  the  mystic 
interpretation,  and  consistency  compels  us  to  give  it 
up  for  the  fourth.  This  does  not,  however,  involve 
the  acceptance  of  the  favourite  critical  view  just 
described.  For  the  “  path  of  life,”  even  in  Proverbs, 
is  not,  I  believe,  only  the  course  which  conduces  to 


Judaism 


243 


happiness,  and  still  less  does  it  mean  this  in  the  Six¬ 
teenth  Psalm.  “  Path  of  life  ”  and  “  path  of  glory  ” 
both  refer  to  the  Messianic  age,  when,  as  another 
psalmist  says,  “  glory  will  abide  in  our  land.”  *  It 
is  the  divine  glory  which  is  meant,  and  “  life  ”  is 
not  merely  what  in  these  dim  days  we  call  happi¬ 
ness,  but  such  an  intense  life  as  is  described  in  these 
words  of  a  late  prophet  : 

“  And  I  will  rejoice  over  Jerusalem,  and  exult  over  My 
people  ; 

And  the  sound  of  weeping  shall  no  more  be  heard  in 
her,  nor  the  sound  of  crying. 

They  shall  not  build,  and  another  inhabit  ;  they  shall 
not  plant,  and  another  eat  : 

For  as  the  days  of  trees  are  the  days  of  my  people.”  f 

It  is  true  that  phrases  like  those  in  the  last  two  lines 
of  Psalm  xvi.  are  used  in  Psalm  xxi.  of  an  earthly 
king.  But  who  is  that  earthly  king?  Not  any 
historically  known  king  of  Israel,  but  the  expected 
Messianic  king,  who  is  in  fact  but  the  leader  and 
representative  of  the  community,  so  that  what  is 
said  of  him  can  equally  well  be  said  of  personified 
Israel,  and  even  (at  least  to  a  great  extent)  of  each 
pious  Israelite.  Certainly  it  is  of  a  pious  individual 
that  Jehovah  is  made  to  say  by  a  psalmist : 

“  I  will  rescue  him  and  make  him  glorious  ; 

I  will  satisfy  him  with  length  of  days, 

And  grant  him  to  see  My  deliverance,”  \ 

*Ps.  lxxxv.,  9.  f  Isa.  lxv.,  19,  22.  \  Ps.  xci.,  15,  16. 


244  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


where  no  doubt  the  blessings  intended  are  those  of 
the  ideal  or  Messianic  age. 

So,  then,  in  none  of  the  passages  quoted,  and  if 
not  there  then  certainly  nowhere  else,  does  the 
Psalter  contain  any  reference  to  the  Resurrection  or 
to  Immortality  for  the  individual,  which  shows  that 
down  to  the  time  of  Simon  the  Maccabee  these 
closely  related  beliefs  were  not  held  by  the  majority 
of  the  pious.  Still  they  must  have  been  held  by  an 
important  minority.  The  ideas  were,  so  to  speak, 
in  the  air,  and  they  corresponded  to  religious  needs, 
which  were  more  and  more  felt,  especially  during 
the  sharp  persecution  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  We 
may  be  sure,  therefore,  that  the  glorious  but  vague 
expressions  of  the  four  passages  which  have  been 
discussed,  and  of  others  which  might  also  be  quoted, 
were  very  early  applied  to  the  individual,  and  inter¬ 
preted  in  what  I  have  called  the  mystic  way.  These 
passages,  and  not  the  melancholy  couplet : 

“  What  man  can  live  on,  and  not  see  death, 

Or  win  escape  for  his  soul  from  the  hand  of  Shedl  ?  ”  * 

must  have  been  the  spiritual  food  of  the  most  fer¬ 
vent  Palestinian  Jews  in  the  Greek  period — of  those 
Jews  whose  successors  became  the  members  of  the 
large  and  important  school  of  the  Pharisees  and  of 
the  sect  of  the  Essenes. 

*  Ps.  lxxxix.,  48  (probably,  however,  an  interpolation). 


Judaism 


245 


And  now  let  us  leap  over  the  interval  between 
Simon  the  Maccabee  and  the  Roman  general,  Pom- 
pey,  who  put  an  end  to  the  Asmonaean  kingdom, 
B.C.  63.  The  belief  which  was  formerly  that  of  a 
minority  has  become  generally  accepted.  Between 
63  and  (say)  45  B.C.  eighteen  fresh  psalms  were 
written  and  collected,  forming  the  so-called  Psalter 
of  Solomon,  in  which  without  the  least  vagueness 
the  Resurrection  and  Immortality  of  the  righteous 
are  described  as  certain.*  The  evidence  of  this  is 
abundant.  We  find  this  saying,  for  instance:  “  The 
life  of  the  righteous  is  for  ever,  but  sinners  shall  be 
taken  away  into  destruction,  and  their  memorial 
shall  no  more  be  found.”  f  And  again :  “  The  de¬ 
struction  of  the  sinner  is  for  ever  ;  but  those  that 
fear  the  Lord  shall  rise  unto  eternal  life ;  their  life 
shall  be  in  the  light  of  the  Lord,  and  shall  not  fail.”  \ 
There  is  also  one  very  striking  passage  in  this  late 
Psalter  in  which  pious  Israelites  are  described  as 
“  trees  of  life.”  They  “  live  for  ever,”  not,  as  the 
Book  of  Enoch  says  of  the  elect,  by  eating  ambrosial 
fruit,  but  by  “  walking  in  the  law  which  God  com¬ 
manded  us.”  §  So,  too,  the  Targum  of  Jonathan  (on 

*  Probably  the  second  of  the  Eighteen  Benedictions,  which  describes 
God  as  “  He  that  brings  the  dead  to  life,"  is  somewhat  older  than 
this  period. 

f  Psalms  of  Solomon  xiii.,  9,  10. 

\lb.,  iii. ,  15,  16.  §  Jb.,  xiv.,  1,  2  ;  Enoch  xxv.,  5. 


246  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Gen.  iii.)  represents  that  the  study  of  the  Law  is  a 
surer  way  to  Immortality  than  tasting  the  fruit  of 
the  tree  of  life,  and  the  appendix  to  the  Sayings  of 
the  Fathers*  says  that  the  Wisdom  which  is  “a 
tree  of  life  to  those  who  lay  hold  on  her”  (Prov.  iii., 
18)  is — the  Law. 

Thus  the  later  writers  (always  excepting  such 
heretics  as  the  author  of  the  original  Ecclesiastes) 
infuse  a  fuller  meaning  into  the  old  phraseology. 
They  do  so  quite  simply  and  as  a  matter  of  course, 
and  I  confess  that  their  view  seems  to  me  to 
give  the  worthiest  interpretation  of  the  consecrated 
words.  At  the  same  time,  I  must  recognise  the  fact 
that  the  old  psalmists  themselves  meant  something 
different,  and  express  my  admiration  for  these  noble 
thinkers,  who,  in  Browning’s  language,  f  were  much 
less  sure  of  soul  than  of  God — for  the  author  of  the 
Seventy-third  Psalm,  for  instance,  who  says  : 

“  Whom  have  I  (to  care)  for  in  heaven  ? 

And  possessing  Thee,  I  have  pleasure  in  nothing  upon 
earth. 

Though  my  flesh  and  my  heart  had  wasted  away, 

God  would  be  my  rock  and  my  portion  for  ever.” 

Could  you  have  questioned  this  psalmist  on  his 
theology,  you  would  probably  have  found  him  on 
the  side  of  Antigonus,  the  Jewish  preacher  of  disin- 

*  Pirqe  A  both,  vi.,  7.  f  See  La  Saisiaz. 


Judaism 


247 


terested  morality,  mentioned  already.  But  as  you 
read  on,  you  see  that  he  is  on  the  verge  of  a  fuller 
intuition.  For  he  continues: 

“  Surely  those  that  remove  from  Thee  shall  perish  ; 

Thou  destroyest  all  those  who  wantonly  desert  Thee. 

But  as  for  me,  nearness  to  God  is  my  happiness  ; 

In  the  Lord  Jehovah  I  have  put  my  trust.”  * 

To  us  it  may  seem  as  if  the  promise  of  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  the  wicked  were  a  guarantee  of  the  salvation 
of  the  righteous.  But  this  unselfish  thinker  is  con¬ 
tent  with  the  present  bliss  of  communion  with  God, 
nearness  to  whom  is  all  the  happiness  that  he  per¬ 
sonally  desires.  That  Israel  will  be  saved,  he  can¬ 
not  doubt.  Even  if  the  destroyer  could  silence  the 
last  of  God’s  confessors  by  the  cold  steel,  the  breath 
of  God  would  breathe  upon  the  dry  bones,  and  they 
would  live.  God  would  still  be  Israel’s  rock  and  its 
portion  forever. 

But  what  is  “  nearness  to  God,”  according  to  early 
Jewish  piety?  Ezekiel  speaks  of  the  priests,  the 
“  sons  of  Zadok,”  as  alone  competent  to  draw  near 
to  God.  But  the  psalmist’s  experience  is  one  that  is 
not  confined  to  priests,  for,  as  one  of  the  latest  psalms 
says,  the  pious,  collectively,  are  “  the  people  of  those 
who  are  near  to  Him.”  f  From  a  Judaean  point  of 
view,  it  is  in  the  temple  that  nearness  to  God  is 
*  Ps.  lxxiii.,  27,  28.  f  Ps.  cxlviii.,  14. 


248  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


chiefly  felt,  where  art  and  religion  combine  to  lift 
the  humblest  believer  above  himself.  How  could 
the  daily  routine  of  legal  obedience  be  felt  irksome 
when  it  was  sweetened  by  a  real,  even  if  mystic,  vision 
of  God  and  by  the  grand  psalmody  of  the  temple  ? 
The  impressiveness  of  the  temple  services  can  be 
imagined  from  the  descriptions  of  the  Chronicler, 
and  from  the  glowing  words  of  Ben  Sira  in  Eccle- 
siasticus.  They  would  not,  of  course,  have  com¬ 
mended  themselves  altogether  to  our  taste,  but  they 
were  admirably  adapted  to  the  people  who  used 
them.  “  How  goodly,”  says  one  of  the  psalmists, 

“  How  goodly  are  the  processions  of  God, 

The  processions  of  my  God,  my  king,  in  the  sanctuary. 
Singers  go  before,  minstrels  follow  after, 

In  the  midst  are  damsels  playing  on  timbrels. 

In  a  full  choir  they  bless  God, 

(Yea)  the  Lord,  the  leader  of  Israel.”  * 

And  then  turn  to  the  “  finale  of  the  spiritual  con¬ 
cert  ”  of  the  Psalter — the  150th  Psalm,  which  I  do 
not  quote  only  because  it  is  among  the  best  known 
of  all  the  psalms.  Certainly  the  Jews  felt  music  and 
singing  to  be  what  Western  Christians  are  wont  to 
describe  as  “  means  of  grace.” 

In  an  elaborate  ritual  system  like  the  Jewish  there 
was,  of  course,  great  danger  of  superstition.  No 

*  Ps.  lxviii.,  24-26. 


Judaism 


249 


doubt  many  Jews  thought  that  their  connection 
with  Jehovah  could  be  renewed  by  a  merely  mechani¬ 
cal  performance  of  sacred  rites.  But  the  best  teach¬ 
ers  consistently  protested  against  this  view.  Only  a 
“righteous  people”  could  draw  near  to  God  and 
benefit  by  the  sacramental  rites,  and  by  righteous¬ 
ness  the  psalmists  mean,  primarily,  religious  morality. 
Here  is  a  passage  in  which  the  Jewish  Church  sol¬ 
emnly  repudiates  all  sympathy  with  the  party  of  the 
wicked  : 

“  I  hate  the  congregation  of  evil-doers, 

And  never  sit  in  the  conclave  of  the  wicked  ; 

I  wash  my  hands  in  innocence, 

So  will  I  go  (in  procession)  round  Thine  altar,  Je¬ 
hovah  ! 

That  I  may  proclaim  with  loud  thanksgiving, 

And  tell  out  all  Thy  wonders.”  * 

We  also  have  in  Psalms  xv.  and  xxiv.  two  poetic 
church  catechisms  describing  the  conditions  of  ad¬ 
mission  to  the  highest  of  all  privileges.  The  condi¬ 
tions  mentioned  are  moral  ones,  and  the  privilege 
offered  is  absolute  security  under  the  divine  protec¬ 
tion.  A  special  name  for  their  privilege  is  Guestship. 
“  Who  may  be  a  guest  in  Thy  tent,  Jehovah  ?  ”  f  asks 
the  pious  community;  and  at  the  Messianic  Judg¬ 
ment  we  are  told  that  sinners  in  Zion  will  tremblingly 
ask : 


*  Ps.  xxvi.,  5-7. 


f  Ps.  xv.,  1. 


250  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


“  Who  can  dwell  as  a  guest  beside  the  devouring  fire  ? 

Who  can  dwell  as  a  guest  beside  the  perpetual  burn- 

•  __  ^ * 
mgs  r 

The  old  conception  of  guestship  was  a  very  different 
one.  The  guests  of  Baal  and  Astarte  were  no  better 
than  parasites,  feasting  at  the  sacrificial  meals,  but 
owning  no  extraordinary  moral  obligations.f  But 
the  guests  of  Jehovah  (the  Jehovah  of  the  psalmists) 
had  received  from  Him  a  new  moral  standard,  and 
high  as  their  aim  was,  always  saw  perfection  above 
them,  for  “  Thy  commandment  is  exceeding  broad.”  \ 
Now  and  then  the  guests  of  Jehovah  might  be  afraid 
of  being  burdensome  to  Him  ;  they  might  think  they 
saw  a  frown  upon  His  face,  and  remind  Him  with  tears 
of  their  Guestship.  §  But  this  was  in  times  of  more 
than  usual  national  distress;  the  normal  state  of  feeling 
fora  “  guest  of  Jehovah  ”  was  certainly  a  joyous  one. 

The  new  and  purified  conception  of  a  guest  of  Je¬ 
hovah  was  one  of  the  greatest  religious  consequences 
•  of  the  Dispersion  of  the  Jews.  It  had  become  im¬ 
possible  to  hold  that  the  privilege  of  Guestship  was 
confined  to  residents  in  Jerusalem.  Tens  of  thou¬ 
sands  of  pious  men  could  only  visit  Jerusalem  once 
in  their  lives ;  many  more  could  never  do  so  at  all. 

*  Isa.  xxxiii.,  14. 

f  Renan,  Histoire  d' Israel,  iii.,  35. 

X  Ps.  cxix. ,  96. 

§  Ps.  xxxix.,  12. 


Judaism 


251 


And  yet  they  were  conscious  of  no  weakening  of 
their  connection  with  Jehovah,  because  they  had  be¬ 
gun  to  learn  the  secret  of  spiritual  prayer.  In  their 
private  chamber  and  in  the  synagogue  a  strange  new 
experience  had  proved  to  them  the  loving  care  of 
their  Protector,  radiated,  as  it  were,  from  Zion  to  any 
“  dry  and  thirsty  ”  *  corner  of  God’s  world  where  they 
happened  to  be.  Even  if  there  were  a  superior  effi¬ 
cacy  in  prayers  offered  in  connection  with  the  temple 
sacrifices,  yet  the  liturgical  services  of  Zion  were  for 
the  good  of  Jehovah’s  people  in  all  lands.  It  was 
even  commonly  supposed  that  by  simply  turning  in 
prayer  towards  Jerusalem  three  times  a  day,f  a  Jew 
in  Persia  or  Egypt  might  obtain  the  same  advantages 
as  a  Jew  who  prayed  in  the  temple.  This  nascent 
belief  in  spiritual  prayer  certainly  influenced  the  Jews 
of  Jerusalem,  many  of  whom,  indeed,  must  have  had 
occasion  when  away  from  home  to  prove  its  truth  by 
experience.  And  thus  to  the  conception  of  a  spirit¬ 
ual  Israel,  gained  from  the  Second  Isaiah,  was  super- 
added  that  of  a  spiritual  temple.  To  those  who,  at 

*  Ps.  Ixiii.,  1. 

f  Dan.  vi.,  10  ;  cf.  1  Kings  viii.,  48.  This  was  a  Zoroastrian  cus¬ 
tom,  except  of  course  as  regards  turning  towards  Jerusalem.  The 
Zoroastrian  precept  was,  “  Three  times  a  day  one  must  worship, 
standing  opposite  the  sun  ”  (Pahlavi  Texts ,  Sacred  Books  of  the 
East,  Part  iii.).  The  first  prayer  was  to  be  at  daybreak.  Hence  at 
any  rate  probably  came  the  Jewish  custom  of  saying  the  first  prayer 
at  dawn.  Cf.  also  Koran,  Sur.  xvii.,  80. 


252  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


a  distance  from  Jerusalem,  read  the  Twenty-third 
Psalm,  the  words  : 

“  I  shall  dwell  in  Jehovah’s  house 
For  all  days  to  come,”  * 

must  have  acquired  a  deeper  meaning  than  the  poet 
intended.  The  temple  of  which  they  thought  was 
one  which  no  unfit  worshippers  could  desecrate,  and 
which  had  a  loftier  roof  and  wider  courts  than  could 
be  seen  on  Zion.  Religious  patriotism  forbade  them 
to  express  this  idea,  but  in  their  heart  of  hearts  they 
very  nearly  agreed  with  those  words  of  Browning : 

“  Why,  where ’s  the  need  of  temple,  when  the  walls 

O’  the  world  are  that  ?  What  use  of  swells  and  falls 

From  Levites’  choir,  priests’  cries,  and  trumpet  calls  ?  ” 

The  conception  of  a  spiritual  temple  naturally 
leads  on  to  that  of  spiritual  sacrifices.  The  origin  of 
this  conception,  which  is  very  plainly  expressed  in 
the  Psalter,  may  safely  be  traced  to  Jeremiah.  This 
prophet,  in  opposition  to  the  legalists  of  his  day, 
emphatically  denies  that  God  gave  any  other  direc¬ 
tions  to  the  ancient  Israelites  than  this :  “  Obey  My 
voice,  and  I  will  be  your  God,  and  ye  shall  be  My 
people.”  f  As  the  context  shows,  he  means  the 

*  Ps.  xxiii.,  6. 

f  Jer.  vii.,  22,  23  ;  Amos  had  said  virtually  the  same  thing  (Am. 

25). 


Judaism 


253 


moral  law.  Now  there  was  a  school  of  thinkers  in 
post-exilic  times  who  were  of  one  mind  with  Jere¬ 
miah.  Among  its  earlier  members  are  the  authors 
of  Psalm  xl.  (part  1),  Psalm  1.,  and  Psalm  li.,  1-17. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  these  writers  were 
as  violently  opposed  as  Jeremiah  to  the  sacrificial 
system ;  they  may  very  possibly  have  held  that  sac¬ 
rifices  were  provisionally  enjoined  for  the  “hardness 
of  men’s  hearts.”  But  they  certainly  held  that  the 
only  essential  statutes  were  the  predominantly  moral 
ones  summed  up  in  the  Decalogue.  I  will  quote 
those  passages  of  the  Psalms  which  are  most  in 
point.  In  the  first  I  have  been  obliged  to  add  a  few 
words  to  complete  the  sense. 

“  In  sacrifice  and  offering  Thou  delightest  not, 

(But)  ears  hast  Thou  created  for  me. 

Burnt  offering  and  sin-offering  Thou  requirest  not, 
[My  heart  hast  Thou  renewed.] 

To  perform  Thy  will, 

O  my  God,  I  delight  ; 

[Thine  ordinance]  and  Thy  law 
Are  within  my  heart.”  * 

The  closing  words  remind  us  once  more  of  Jeremiah, 
who  assures  us  that  in  the  latter  day  God  will  “  put 
His  law  into  Israel’s  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their 
hearts  ”  f — words  which  express  the  highest  intui¬ 
tion  of  pre-exilic  prophecy. 

*  Ps.  xl.,  6,  8. 


f  Jer.  xxxi.,  33. 


254  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


In  the  next  passage  those  Jews  who  frequent  the 
temple  but  break  Jehovah’s  fundamental  statutes  re¬ 
ceive  a  severe  castigation.  This  is  coupled,  not  with 
a  command  to  perform  the  usual  rites  in  a  better 
frame  of  mind,  but  with  this  surprising  injunction  : 

“  Sacrifice  to  God  thanksgiving, 

And  pay  thy  vows  to  the  Most  High  ; 

And  invoke  Me  in  the  day  of  trouble  : 

I  will  rescue  thee,  and  thou  shalt  glorify  Me.”  * 

And  the  closing  words  of  the  psalm  are : 

“  He  that  sacrifices  thanksgiving,  glorifies  Me, 

And  to  him  that  is  of  blameless  life  I  will  show  the 
deliverance  of  God.”  f 

Here  we  have  not  only  sacrifices  but  even  vows, 
which  affected  daily  life  still  more  than  sacrifices, 
abrogated  by  being  spiritualised.  The  only  right 
vows  are  vows  of  amendment  of  life  ;  the  only  right 
sacrifice  is  thanksgiving  for  God’s  innumerable 
mercies  to  Israel.  The  criticism  applied  by  the  au¬ 
thor  of  Ecclesiastes  (see  Lecture  V.)  to  the  popu¬ 
lar  sacrifices  and  vows  of  his  own  time  illustrates  and 
justifies  the  language  of  the  psalmist. 

Last  of  all,  listen  to  these  lines  from  the  Fifty-first 
Psalm  : 

“  Thou  hast  no  pleasure  in  sacrifices  and  offerings  ; 

In  burnt  offerings  (and  whole  burnt  offerings)  Thou 
delightest  not. 

*  Ps.  1.,  14,  15. 


f  Ps.  1.,  23. 


Judaism 


255 


The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit  ; 

A  broken  and  contrite  heart,  O  God,  Thou  canst  not 
despise.”  * 

Here  we  have  in  germ  the  doctrine  of  the  later  Juda¬ 
ism  that  repentance  is  tantamount  to  burnt  offerings. 
A  later  writer,  however,  was  dissatisfied  with  this,  and 
added  a  rather  poor  appendix. f  He  did  not  deny 
that  God  was  at  present  quite  indifferent  to  sacrifices 
— the  misfortunes  of  Israel  too  plainly  proved  this, 
— but  he  thought  that  when  the  ruined  walls  of 
Jerusalem  were  rebuilt,  He  would  once  more  be 
pleased  with  the  “  right  sacrifices” — a  vague  expres¬ 
sion  which  seems  to  mean  sacrifices  offered,  not 
with  the  view  of  changing  God’s  purpose,  but  out  of 
obedience  to  His  declared  will.  He  belonged,  that 
is,  to  a  theological  school  which  accepted  the  sacri¬ 
ficial  system  without  criticism  as  of  divine  appoint¬ 
ment,  but  gave  it  a  new  symbolic  meaning.  Of  this 
school  the  author  of  Isaiah  liii.,  who  speaks  of  the 
self-oblation  of  a  martyr  as  a  true  “  offering  for  sin,” 
seems  to  have  been  also  a  member. 

So,  then,  there  were  other  places  besides  the  tem¬ 
ple  where  God  was  felt  to  be  near,  viz.,  the  private 
chamber  and  the  synagogue,  and  those  who  could 
only  find  God  here  could  perfectly  well  sing  the 
psalm,  “Jehovah  is  my  shepherd  ;  I  want  for  noth- 
*  Ps.  li.,  16,  17.  f  Ib.y  vv.  18,  19. 


256  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


ing.”  Prayers  and  praises  were  their  sacrifices,  and 
one  more  service  there  was  which  is  only  not  called 
a  sacrifice  because  it  had  no  connection  with  the 
temple — the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  Did  Ezra 
perceive  that  he  was  digging  the  grave  of  the  sacri¬ 
ficial  system  when  he  recognised  the  principle  of  a 
written  revelation  ?  At  any  rate  such  was  the  result 
of  the  gradual  canonisation  of  the  Law,  the  Prophets, 
and  the  Writings  ;  inspired  books  must  necessarily  be 
vehicles  of  the  divine  spirit,  and  to  commune  with 
them  is  equivalent  to  communing  with  God.  It  was 
in  the  Greek  period  (to  which  the  psalms  on  the 
Law  appear  to  belong)  that  this  high  view  of  the 
Scriptures  began  to  be  prevalent.  The  more  dan¬ 
gerous  Hellenism  became,  the  more  the  pious  Jews 
sought  an  antidote  to  it  in  their  Bible,  and  after  the 
Maccabsean  rising  the  veneration  for  the  Scriptures 
became  such  that  “  in  them”  the  Jews  “thought 
they  had  eternal  life.”*  They  felt  that  here  was  a 
moral  sublimity  to  which  Greece  could  offer  no 
counterpart,  and  a  bond  which  could  unite  the  scat¬ 
tered  members  of  their  race  far  more  effectually 
than  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  And  history  justified 
their  conviction.  More  and  more  offence  was  given 
to  all  high-minded  Jews  by  the  chief  ministers  of  the 
sanctuary,  and  when  the  vengeance  of  implacable 

*  John  v.,  39. 


Judaism 


257 


Rome  demanded  the  final  destruction  of  the  already 
desecrated  shrine,  it  was  a  comfort  to  the  Jews  to 
know  that  their  greatest  treasure  was  saved.  The 
golden  candlestick  might  be  carried  away  by  victors, 
but  the  sun  of  the  spiritual  firmament  remained, 
“  and  there  was  nothing  hid  from  the  heat  thereof.”  * 
How  it  came  to  pass  that  the  possession  of  a  sa¬ 
cred  volume  failed  to  secure  Jewish  religion  against 
change,  it  is  not  for  me  to  describe.  Suffice  it  to 
-say  that  the  changes  which  have  passed,  and  which 
are  still  passing,  over  Jewish  religious  thought  are 
not  greater  than  those  which  passed  over  it  within 
the  Biblical  period.  I  have  found  it  impossible  to 
give  even  this  brief  sketch  of  post-exilic  religion  with¬ 
out  alluding  from  time  to  time  to  foreign  influences. 
The  influence  of  Greek  thought  cannot  be  definitely 
traced  in  the  early  Greek  period  ;  we  first  find  it  in 
Ecclesiastes.  But  the  inquisitive  spirit  which  pro¬ 
duced  that  remarkable  book  doubtless  existed  ear¬ 
lier ;  the  Book  of  Job,  though  Hebraic  in  forms  of 
expression,  represents  a  new  departure  in  Jewish 
thought,  which  cannot  be  dissociated  from  Greek 
influence.  Persian  influence  did  not  begin  to  be 
strongly  felt  by  Palestinian  Jews  as  early  as  has  been 
supposed.  The  Ahura-mazda  of  the  Avesta  has  no 
doubt  a  strong  affinity  to  the  Jehovah  of  the  later 

*  Ps.  xix.,  6. 


17 


258  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


Jewish  writers,  but  the  old  attraction  to  Babylon  for 
a  long  time  prevented  this  newly  discovered  affinity 
from  producing  much  effect.  Some  effect  of  course 
there  must  have  been,  but  we  are  not  in  a  position 
to  calculate  its  amount.  Before  the  arrival  of  Ezra 
it  was  probably  almost  confined  to  the  large  Jewish 
colonies  on  the  east  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris, 
and  even  in  Babylonian-Jewish  works  like  the  Priestly 
Code,  in  the  Cosmogony  for  instance  (where  we 
might  have  expected  something  different),  it  is 
Babylonian  rather  than  Persian  influence  which  is 
most  clearly  traceable.  It  is  true,  the  conception  of 
the  pre-existent  heavenly  Wisdom  in  the  Prologue 
of  Proverbs  has  Zoroastrian  affinities,  and  at  an  ear¬ 
lier  date  we  meet  with  a  belief  in  a  Resurrection, 
which  can  hardly  have  developed  without  Persian 
stimulus.  But  the  Prologue  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs 
is  a  work  of  the  early  Greek  period,  when  Persian 
influence  can  without  difficulty  be  admitted,  and  the 
belief  in  a  Resurrection  was  not  (as  it  would  seem) 
originally  accompanied  by  a  belief  in  Immortality,* 
though  the  two  beliefs  go  together  in  genuine 
Zoroastrianism. 

*  The  two  beliefs  were  combined  by  the  Essenes,  if  Josephus’s  ac¬ 
count  of  this  sect  may  be  trusted  (Jos.,  Ant.,  xviii.,  1,  5  ;  cf.  xiii.,  5, 
9).  Their  doctrine  of  the  soul  combines  two  elements — a  Babylonian 
and  a  Persian — both  Hebraised  (Cheyne,  Origin  of  the  Psalter ,  p. 

419)- 


Judaism 


259 


The  truth  is  that  we  cannot  sharply  distinguish 
between  the  two  classes  of  influences — Persian  and 
Babylonian.  Ancient  Persia  and  ancient  Israel 
were  both  influenced  by  Babylon,  and  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  Babylon  upon  Persia  began  probably  at  a 
much  earlier  date  than  has  been  supposed.  Baby¬ 
lonian  deeds  show  that  Persians  resided  in  Babylon 
before  the  conquests  of  Cyrus,  and  the  Religion  of 
Ahura-mazda,  though  more  akin  to  that  of  Jehovah 
than  to  that  of  Marduk  or  Merodach,  may  perfectly 
well  have  been  influenced,  like  its  Jewish  sister,  by 
the  latter.  I  feel  sure  that  it  was  so  influenced,  and 
that  those  scholars  who  would  explain  all  Jewish  or 
all  Persian  ideas  from  unassisted  internal  movements 
are  in  the  wrong.  The  development  both  of  Jewish 
and  of  Persian  religion  is  no  doubt  for  the  most  part 
perfectly  natural ;  but  the  development  would  not 
have  taken  quite  the  same  course  but  for  certain  at¬ 
mospheric  influences,  if  I  may  use  the  phrase,  which 
came  from  Babylonia.  Hence  it  is  frequently  diffi¬ 
cult  to  offer  absolutely  convincing  proofs  of  the  in¬ 
debtedness  of  Judaism  or  Zoroastrianism  to  Babylon, 
and,  for  a  similar  reason,  of  the  indebtedness  of  Juda¬ 
ism  to  Zoroastrianism.  Some  obviously  direct  loans 
there  are,  but  generally  we  have  to  be  content  with 
showing  the  probability  of  indirect  religious  influ¬ 
ence.  This,  however,  will  certainly  not  be  difficult 


260  Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile 


to  show  to  those  who  have  any  familiarity  with  the 
study  of  comparative  religion.  And  not  to  trouble 
you  with  further  details,  I  maintain  that,  as  illustra¬ 
tions  of  the  movement  of  Jewish  thought  indicated 
by  the  Psalter,  the  ancient  Zoroastrian  hymns  called 
the  Gathas*  are  more  instructive  than  any  of  the  re¬ 
ligious  utterances  in  either  the  earlier  or  the  later 
Babylonian  inscriptions.  They  are  quite  as  free 
from  superstitious  ceremonialism  and  as  uncompro¬ 
mising  in  their  ethical  demands  f  as  the  Hebrew 
Psalms,  and  it  can  hardly  be  denied  that  the  commun- 
ings  between  God  and  Zarathustra  (who  is  practi¬ 
cally  the  impersonation  of  the  pious  community)  can 
only  be  equalled  in  spirituality  by  the  very  finest 
parts  of  the  temple  hymn-book. 

Such  are  the  historical  results  which,  after  divest¬ 
ing  them  of  troublesome  technicalities,  I  have  felt 
moved  to  lay  before  you.  But  before  I  conclude, 
let  me  urge  upon  you  not  to  let  these  historical  in¬ 
quiries  languish.  If  there  are  other  voices  which 
sound  more  enticing  to  the  men  and  women  of  this 
generation,  it  does  not  follow  that  they  are  really 
more  important  than  the  call  to  search  the  Script¬ 
ures.  Religious  reform  is  a  necessary  condition  of 

*  See  Zend-Avesta ,  vol.  iii.  (Sacred  Books  of  the  East). 

f  The  extension  of  morality  to  the  thoughts  (“good  thoughts, 
good  words,  good  deeds  ”)  is  as  characteristic  of  the  Gathas  as  of  the 
Psalms.  Cf.  Ps.  xvii.,  3-5. 


Judaism 


261 


social  progress,  and  with  a  view  to  this  the  origin 
and  nature  of  essential  Christianity,  and — shall  I  add  ? 
— of  essential  Judaism,  has  to  be  investigated  afresh. 
Deeply  as  it  stirs  our  feelings,  none  of  us  should  re¬ 
fuse  to  take  his  part  in  this  grave  debate.  I  do  not 
undervalue  the  study  of  the  early  Israelitish  religion  ; 
indeed,  I  could  wish  to  have  included  its  records 
within  my  survey.  But  it  is  the  study  of  the  relig¬ 
ious  formation  which  developed  out  of  this  which 
has  the  most  claim  on  our  attention,  because  of  its 
close  relation  to  the  historical  problems  of  early 
Christianity.  It  is  itself  not  without  its  thorny  re¬ 
gions,  but  amidst  the  thorns  we  are  surprised  by  de¬ 
lightful  blooms,  the  efflorescence  of  the  religious 
spirit  of  Judaism.  I  have  done  what  I  could  within 
the  necessary  limits  to  dispose  some  of  these  flower¬ 
ets  to  the  best  advantage.  If  the  Songs  of  the  Ser¬ 
vant  of  Jehovah,  the  composite  Poem  of  Job,  the 
Psalter,  the  Books  of  Wisdom,  the  narratives,  at 
least,  of  Ezra’s  law-book,  and  the  narrative  of  the 
Chronicler  have  in  some  of  their  aspects  become 
more  living  realities  to  my  readers,  I  shall  feel  that 
my  visit  to  America,  which  has  now  become  a  treas¬ 
ured  memory,  was  not  altogether  useless. 


INDEX. 


Agur,  sceptical  poet,  1 74  ff, 
Angel  of  repentance,  18 
Antigonus  of  Soco,  saying  of, 
190,  198,  246 

Artaxerxes,  why  favourable  to 
the  Jews,  38 
Atonement,  Day  of,  75 
Augustine  of-Canterbury,  27 
Aurelius,  M.,  194 
Azazel,  76 

Babylonian,  influences,  130,  259  ; 
kings,  107 

Behemoth  and  Leviathan,  154  n. 
Bernard,  St.,  190 
Bickell  on  Ecclesiastes,  184  /. 
Bildad,  influence  on  Job’s  devel¬ 
opment,  168 

Branch,  origin  of  Messianic  title, 
15 

Briggs,  Dr.  C.  A.,  220 
Browning,  246,  252 
Buddhism,  ideal  king  of,  101 

Cambyses  and  Egyptian  religion, 
4i 

Carlyle,  quoted,  207 
Chaos  unknown  to  Job,  154 
Chronicler,  piety  of,  215  ;  Leviti- 
cal  interest,  213  f.  ;  attitude 
towards  ritual,  213  ;  attitude 
towards  Gentiles,  221  ;  as  an 
historian,  197,  214 
Church,  Jewish  Catholic,  226  f. 
Congregation,  the,  62-64 
Cosmogony,  Babylonian  affini¬ 
ties  of,  258 

Creation,  new  conception  of, 
154 


Cyrus,  policy  of,  82 

David,  symbolic  use  of,  96 

Ecclesiastes,  a  “Song  of 
Songs  ”(?),  183;  unity  ques¬ 
tioned,  183  f.  ;  how  made  or¬ 
thodox,  184  ;  cool  theism  of, 
186 ;  attitude  towards  the 
Law,  189  ;  attitude  towards 
immortality,  191  ;  attitude 
towards  marriage,  191  f.  ; 
Stoic  affinities  of,  198  ;  char¬ 
acter  of  author,  191,  194  f., 
205  ff  ;  date  of,  197  ff. 
Ecclesiasticus,  its  devout  sim¬ 
plicity,  212  ;  attitude  towards 
wisdom,  209  ;  attitude  towards 
the  Law,  210  ;  attitude  to¬ 

wards  future  life,  232  ;  atti¬ 
tude  towards  Messiah-belief, 

21 1  ;  attitude  towards  nature, 

212  ;  date  of,  199,  209 
Egyptian,  priest,  a  parallel  to 

Nehemiah,  40-43  ;  religion, 
60 

Elihu,  speeches  of,  18,  171 
Elisha  ben  Abuyah,  a  sceptic, 
178 

Emerson,  quoted,  155 
Enoch,  151,  155,  158/.,  177  n., 
181,  239;  Book  of,  151,  155, 
176,  18 1,  203  /.,  236 
Essenes,  200,  203  f.y  244,  258 
n. 

Ezekiel,  influence  of,  24/.,  165 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  historicity 
of,  56 


263 


264 


Index 


Ezra,  his  character  and  career, 
59,  69  f.  ;  object  of  his  migra¬ 
tion,  54  ;  his  supposed  firman, 
55  /•>  7°  f-  J  his  attempted 
marriage  reforms,  56-62  ;  his 
relation  to  the  congregation, 
62-64;  was  he  a  priest?  55 
Ezra’s  lawbook,  not  at  once  gen¬ 
erally  accepted,  57  62  ;  not 

merelv  legal,  77  ;  not  alto¬ 
gether  his  work,  72  ;  in  what 
sense  new,  72  f. 

Fasting,  9-1 1 

Fatherhood,  the  divine,  59,  60 
Frazer,  author  of  Golden  Bough , 
75 

Gentiles,  Jewish  attitude  to¬ 
wards,  134,  218  ff. 

Gerizim,  Mt.,  temple  on,  28, 

32/ 

Geshem,  the  Arabian,  45 
God,  names  of,  175  ;  dual  aspect 
of,  1 66- 1 68  ;  sons  of,  175  f. 
Goethe,  quoted,  174 
Greek  thought,  158,  173,  178, 
196/.,  206,  257 

Guests  of  Jehovah,  idea  of,  250 

Haggai,  8/.,  11-13 
Handel,  his  Messiah ,  99 
Haupt,  Professor,  5,  185 
“Heads”  of  the  Jewish  com¬ 
munity,  6,  10,  16 
Herod  the  Great,  200 
Holiness,  ceremonial,  74 
Hooker,  quoted,  154 
Hope,  the  larger,  229 
Humility,  80 
Hyrcanus,  John,  199 

Ideals,  Jewish  religious,  82  ff. 
Immortality,  229-244 
Inspiration,  Book  of  Wisdom 
on,  133  ;  Philo  on,  133 

Jannaeus,  Alexander,  199 


Jeremiah,  anti-sacrificial  school 
of,  252/. 

Jeshua,  high  priest,  6 
Jews,  three  classes  of,  125  ; 
number  of,  in  the  community, 
65  n.  ;  why  so  few  returned  at 
first,  21 

Job,  a  poetical  version  of  Abra¬ 
ham,  79 ;  original  Book  of, 
160  ff.  ;  early  legend  of,  159 
ff. ;  and  his  friends,  roles  trans¬ 
posed,  165  f.\  of  Edomitish  ori¬ 
gin  (?),  132  ;  insertions  in  Book 
of,  1 71  ff.;  and  the  Servant  of 
Jehovah  passages,  162  ;  on 
future  life,  17,  23  /.,  63 
Jonah,  story  of,  91,  218 
Josephus,  cited,  39,  200,  258 

“  Kiss  the  Son,”  a  misunder¬ 
standing,  1 12 
Koheleth,  see  Preacher 
Koran,  cited,  251  n. 

Loeb,  on  the  Psalms,  113 

Maccabee,  Simon  the,  244 
Macdonald,  Prof.  D.  B.,  160 
Manasseh,  Jewish  priest,  32,  68 
Messiah,  the,  94  ff. ,  243 
Milton,  quoted,  144 
Mommsen,  quoted,  4 
Montaigne,  183,  208 
Mountain,  the  divine,  no 

Nathan,  prophecy  of,  109 
Nature,  contemplation  of,  172  ff. 
Nehemiah,  character  of,  43  ff. ; 
career  of,  37-54,  64-69 

Orthodoxy,  an  early  protest  of, 
179 

Pascal,  a  Hebrew,  164 
Paul,  St.,  59  ;  Pauline  theology, 
77 

Persian  influences,  257  ff. 

Peters,  Dr.  J.  P.,  16  n. 


Index 


265 


Pharisees  and  Sadducees,  200, 
204  ff.,  244 

Pirqe  Aboth,  quoted,  246 
Pompey,  245 
Prayer,  discovery  of,  251 
Preacher,  the,  identified  with 
Solomon,  184,  197 
Prophets,  their  activity  at  Baby¬ 
lon,  21  f. 

Proselytes,  219,  221,  224  f. 
Proverbs,  Book  of,  an  ethical 
handbook,  173,  208  ;  Book  of, 
secular  element  in,  138  ; 
Book  of,  religion  of,  139  ff. 
Psalter,  an  historical  authority, 
124  ;  text  needs  revision,  235  ; 
twice  refers  to  an  historical 
ruler,  105  ;  religious  influence 
of,  74,  204  ;  of  Solomon,  205, 
245 

Religion,  individual,  166 
Religions,  historical  study  of, 
261 

Renan,  his  date  for  Ecclesiastes, 
199  ;  quoted,  250 
Resurrection,  244  ;  limitation  of, 
230 

Retribution,  doctrine  of,  163  f., 
211,  214 

Rhys-Davids,  Professor,  101 
Rig  Veda,  quoted,  178 
Ruth,  story  of,  220 

Sabbath,  66  f. 

Sacrifices,  spiritual,  252-255 
Samaritans,  the,  25-35,  60,  68 
Sanballat,  31,  45,  47,  48,  68 
Satan,  18,  212 


Scepticism,  Jewish,  173,  195  ff. 
Servant  of  Jehovah,  69,  86  ff., 
223  n.;  songs  of,  when  in¬ 
serted  in  2  Isaiah,  92  ;  in 
Psalter,  93 
Sheshbazzar,  6 

Simeon,  the  Righteous,  saying 
of,  190,  210  n. 

Sirach,  Jesus  son  of,  209  ( see 
Ecclesiasticus) 

Solomon,  in  legend,  128  f.,  197 
Stanley,  Dean,  on  Nehemiah,  44 

Talmud,  cited,  201  n.,  246 
Targum,  on  Deut.  xxxiii. ,  11, 
199  n, ;  on  Psalm  lxxiii.,  238  ; 
free  treatment  of  Ecclesiastes, 
188  ;  on  Gen.  iii.,  245 
Temple,  spiritual,  251  255 

Thutmes  III.,  of  Egypt,  no 
Tobiah  the  Ammonite,  45,  65 

Virgil,  a  prophet,  103  n. 

Vows,  scruples  respecting,  189, 
254 

Wisdom,  conception  of,  126  ff., 
153-156,  159,  176,  209  /., 
258 

Zechariah,  n-19;  his  disillusion¬ 
ment,  16 

Zend-Avesta,  cited,  157,  210, 

260 

Zerubbabel,  6,  8,14-16 
Zion,  meaning  of,  in  2  Isaiah, 
63 

Zoroastrianism,  74,  81,  151,  157, 
210,  251  n.,  258  ff. 


BIBLICAL  PASSAGES. 

I.  OLD  TESTAMENT  AND  APOCRYPHA. 


GENESIS. 


i  .  216 

ii  .  177  n. 

v. ,  21-24 .  155 

—  24 .  239 

ix.,  1-17 .  217 

xviii.,  17-19 .  130 

LEVITICUS. 

xi.,  44 .  80 

NUMBERS. 

xi.,  29  ;  xvi.,  3 .  91 

xv. ,  32-36 .  66 

xxi.,  17,  18 .  227 

xxiii.,  xxiv .  13111. 

DEUTERONOMY. 

iv.,  10 .  130 

—  19 .  86n. 

vi. ,  7,  20_/. .  130 

xi.,  19 .  130 

xxxii.,  Ji .  241 

JUDGES. 

ix.,  8-15 .  131 

RUTH. 

iv.,  18-22 .  220 

2  SAMUEL. 

xiv.,  2 .  131 

—  17,  20 .  131 

xvi. ,  23 .  131 


I  KINGS. 


iii.  ,  28 .  131 

iv. ,  29-34 .  129 

viii. ,  48 .  251 

2  KINGS. 

xxii.,  8 .  71 

1  CHRONICLES. 

xxix.,  10-19 .  2I5 

2  CHRONICLES. 

xii.,  13/ . 221 

EZRA. 

V .  15 

vii.,  6-10 .  71 

—  n-26 .  55 

—  25 .  210 

—  27/ .  54 

ix. ,  x .  58/. 

NEHEMIAH. 

vi.,  7 .  16 

viii .  57/ 

xii. ,  15-22 .  66 

xiii.  ,  23-27  ;  28-30 .  68 

JOB. 

V.,  12  / .  138 

xi.,  12 .  136 

xiv. ,  7-12 .  233 

—  13-17 .  234 

xv. ,  4/ .  117 

—  5 .  138 


266 


Biblical  Passages 


267 


JOB  (continued). 


PSALMS  (CONTINUED). 


xv. ,  7/. . 

xvi, ,  18-21 . 

xix.,  21  f \ . 

—  25-29 . 

xxi . 

..  149  n.,  177 

.  168 

.  169,  235 

.  7Q 

xxiii.,  8 . 

xxviii . 

.  171 

—  20-23 . 

.  153 

—  26  /.  . 

.  150 

—  28 . 

.  153 

xxix.-xxxi . 

.  170 

xxxiii.,  23  f . 

.  18 

xxxviii.-xli . 

.  171 

xxxviii.,  22-27.  • 

—  29-34 . 

.  152 

PSALMS. 


i.,  2 .  126 

ii . Ill,  1 12 

V.,  9 .  120 

ix.,  11,  12,  17 .  218 

X.,  3 .  119 

xii.,  1 .  122 

xv  .  249 

—  5 .  122 

xvi  .  241-244 

—  i-5 .  30 

xvii  .  240,  241 

-3-5 .  260 

xviii  .  no,  hi 

xix. ,  6. .  257 

xx. ,  xxi .  106 

xxi. ,  6 .  241 

xxii .  93 

—  7,  8 .  120 

xxiii.,  6 .  252 

xxiv .  249 

xx vi.,  5 .  124 

-5-7 .  249 

—  9/ .  !23 

xxvii.,  4 . 219 

—  12 .  121 

xxxi.,  18 .  120 

xxxv.,  4-6 .  143 

—  11  .  121 

xxxvi.,  1-3 .  1 16 

—  8-10 . 228 


xxxvii. ,  26 . 

xxxix.,  12 . 

xl.  (part  1) . 

.  253 

—  6-8 . 

.  253 

xlii.,  3,  4 . 

.  119 

—  4 . 

.  114 

xliv.,  24 . 

.  144 

xlv . 

—  4 . 

.  80 

xlix . 

1 . 

.  253 

— 14/.,  23.... 

.  254 

Ii..  1-17 . 

—  12/. . 

-16/ . 

.  255 

-18/. . 

.  255 

lii.,  1 . 

lv.,  II . 

lxiii.,  1 . 

.  251 

lxv.,  2 . 

lxviii. ,  22 . 

—  24-26 . 

lxix.  ,20  f  .... 

.  1 18 

lxxii . 

lxxiii . 

—  25,  26 . 

—  27,  28 . 

.  247 

lxxxv.,  9 . 

.  243 

lxxxvii . 

. 225/. 

lxxxix . 

.  109/. 

-48 . 

.  244 

xci. ,  15/. . 

.  243 

xcii. ,  7  f. . 

.  143 

xciv.,  10 . 

.  135 

xcvii.,  1-6 . 

ci . 

cx . 

.  105 

cxv . 

-4-8 . 

cxviii .  . . . 

cxix.,  43,  46. . . 

.  223 

—  72,  99 . 

-84 . 

—  96 . 

CXX. ,  2 . 

.  122 

cxxiii.,  3/ . 

.  118 

cxxvii.,  3 . 

.  24 

268 


Biblical  Passages 


PSALMS  (CONTINUED). 


CXXX1.,  I . 

cxxxii.,  II . 

cxxxv . 

cxxxix. ,  21 . 

—  24 . 

.  125 

cxliv.,  1-11 . 

cl . 

PROVERBS. 

i.,  4 . 

.  138 

—  6 . 

—  27 . 

. 233 

ii.,  19 . 

iii. ,  2,  16 . 

.  233 

—  14-16 . 

.  138 

—  18 . 

v.,  5/ . 

vm.,  4 . 

.  134 

—  5-12 . 

.  138 

18  /• . 

.  138 

—  22-31 . 

149,  208 

—  25 . 

. .  177  n. 

—  3i . 

.  134 

ix.,  11 . 

.  233 

x.,  17 . 

—  23 . 

.  136 

—  27 . 

I39»  233 

—  29 . 

.  139 

XL,  30 . 

.  137 

xii.,  28 . 

.  232 

xiv.,  2,  31 . 

—  35 . 

.  145 

xv.,  3,  II . 

—  8 . 

.  141 

—  33 . 

.  139 

xvi.,  3 . 

-  141 

—  4 . 

•143,  153 

—  7 . 

—  10 . 

.  145 

xvii.,  27 . 

. .  . .  138 

xix.,  17 . 

.  194 

xx.,  28 . 

xxi.,  3,  27 . 

.  141 

xxii.,  3 . 

.  138 

xxiv.,  11 . 

.  193 

—  17 . 

.  141 

—  2I/« . 

PROVERBS  (CONTINUED). 


xxv.  ,4  / . 

—  21/. . 

xxviii.,  3 . 

.  123 

xxix.,  13 . 

.  144 

—  18 . 

.  145 

xxx.,  2-4 . 

. I73-i8i 

-5-9 . 

—  29-31 . 

. .  146 

xxxi.,  1-9.  .  .  . 

xxxiii. ,  13-15, 

ECCLESIASTES. 

i.,  4-9 . 

.  207/. 

—  12-14 . 

—  14/ . 

ii.,  18/ . 

.  194 

iii.,  11 . 

—  21 . 

.  191 

v.,  4,  6 . 

.  188 

—  7 . 

.  191 

vii.,  2/ . 

—  15 . 

.  187 

-16/ . 

. .  188 

—  27/ . 

viii.,  2-4 . 

—  9 . 

—  14 . 

.  187 

ix.,  2 . 

.  203 

x.,  7 . 

.  201  /. 

—  16a,  17a. .  . 

—  20 . 

.  201 

xi.,  10a  ;  xii., 

ia .  192 

xii.,  11/ . 

—  13  /• . 

.  197 

ISAIAH. 

i.  26 . 

iii.,  4  ) 

’7  h  .  •  •  • 

V.,  II  J 

ix.,  2-7 . 

•  •  94,  97,  98-101 

xi.,  1-8 . 

. .  94,  97,  101-104 

xix.,  18-25. . . 

—  24/ . 

xxiv.,  5 . 

xxv.,  7/. - 

xxvi.,  14-19.  . 

xxx.,  2 . 

.  131 

Biblical  Passages 


269 


ISAIAH  (CONTINUED). 


EZEKIEL. 


xxxi.,  2 . 

.  ...  130/. 

xxxiii.,  14 . 

.  250 

xl-,  13/ . 

.  156 

xlii. ,  1-4 . 

.  89 

—  4 . 

—  6 . 

.  92 

xliv.,  9-20  } 

xlvi.,  6-8  f 

xlix.,  1-6 . 

.  88/. 

1-.  4-9  . 

.  88 

Ii.,  7-10  l 

In.,  12  \  • 

■ .  24 

—  13-15 . 

.  9i 

—  13  ;  liii. ,  12 . 

liii. ,  2-9.  .  .  . .  . . 

.  83 

—  10/. . 

—  12 . 

.  96 

liv.,  1 . 

.  24 

—  13 . 

.  9i 

lv. ,  if . 

. .  23 

-3-5 . 

.  97 

lvi.,  1-8 . 

—  2-6. .  . 

.  67 

lvii.,  1 . 

.  85 

lviii. ,  5 . 

—  13 . 

.  67 

lix. ,  20 . 

.  63 

—  21 . 

.  223 

lx.,  13 . 

lxi.,  1-3  ) 

lxn.,  1,  6,  7  f 

lxv.,  if . 

.  27 

-3-5,  n . 

.  29 

—  19  /• . 

.  231 

—  19-22 . 

.  243 

lxvi  ,  1  f . . 

. .  28 

—  'if- . 

.  29 

JEREMIAH. 


vii. ,  22  / .  252 

viii. ,  8 .  131 

ix. ,  17 .  131  n. 

xxiii.,5  / .  95 

xxxi. ,  33 . 253 

xxxiii.,  14-16 .  95 

xli.,  5 .  26 

xlix.,  7 .  132 


xiv.,  14  .  159 

xvii.,  22-24  1 

xxxiv. ,  23/.  j- .  94 

xxx vii.,  24  /.  ) 

xxviii.,  3 .  155 

—  13  / .  no 

xlv.,  10-20 .  75 

xlviii.,35 .  95  n- 


DANIEL. 


vi.,  10 .  251 

xii. ,  1-3 .  230 

—  3 .  125 


AMOS. 


iii.,  6 . .  . 
—  7. . .  . 
v.,  25. . 

ix.,  11  /. 


...98 
. .  12 

252  n. 
.  .  100 


MICAH. 


iii-,  3 . 

vi.,  8 . 

HAGGAI. 

ii.  ,6  /.  ) 

—  21-23  f  . 

ZECHARIAH. 


121 

91 


13 


11.,  8 . 

111.,  8  ) 

vi.,  12  f 

v. ,  5-1 1. . 

vi. ,  9-12. 

vii. ,  1-5.. 

ix.,  9 - 

xii.,  8 . . .  . 

—  10. .  . . 


. . .  218 

- . .  15 

. ..  18 

. . .  15 

10 

80,  108 
. . .  103 
.  85  n. 


MALACHT. 


i-,  n . 

.  28,  133 

ii. ,  8 . 

.  32 

—  10  / . 

—  10-16 . 

iii.,  16 . 

.  20,  63 

iv.,  1-4 . 

.  19 

-  5  / . 

Biblical  Passages 


270 


ECCLESIASTICUS. 


1.,  15 . 

.  134 

xvii.,  17 . 

xviii.,  13 . 

.  135 

xxi.,  27 . 

xxiv.,  8,  23  ) 
xxxvi.,  12  > . 

xxxvii.,  25  ) 

xxxii.,  15 . 

XXXV.,  1-6 . 

xxxvi.,  1-17 . 

.  147 

xxxviii.,  20  f.  } 
xl.,  II  /.  J  ' 

xxxix.,  4,  10 . 

.  134 

xliii.,  27-33 . 

xlv.,  25 . 

xlvii.,  17 . 

xlviii.,  11 . 

xlix.,  13 . 

WISDOM  OF  SOLOMON. 

vii.,  22  f .  298 


2  ESDRAS. 

xiv.,  44 .  71 

1  MACCABEES. 

V.,  14-54 .  225 

II.  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

MATTHEW. 

xi.,  14 .  47 

—  29 /....• .  80  n. 

JOHN. 

iv. ,  13/ .  228 

v. ,  17 .  154 

—  39 .  256 

ACTS. 

XV.,  20 .  217 

2  CORINTHIANS. 

iii.,  2 .  92 


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With  Map,  8vo . $3.00 

“  A  work  which  marks  an  important  step  in  advance  in  the  historical  inter¬ 
pretation  of  St.  Paul.  .  .  .  It  is  an  immense  gain  to  have  the  narrative 

lifted  from  the  mean  function  of  being  an  artful  monument  and  mirror  of 
a  strife  internal  to  Christianity  which  it  seeks  by  a  process,  now  of  creation, 
now  of  elimination,  to  overcome  and  to  conceal,  to  the  high  purpose  of 
representing  the  religion  as  it  began  within  the  Empire  and  as  it  actually  was  to 
the  Empire  and  the  Empire  to  it.  .  .  .  Professor  Ramsay  has  made  a  solid 

and  valuable  contribution  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Apostolic  literature  and  of 
the  Apostolic  age — a  contribution  distinguished  no  less  by  ripe  scholarship,  in¬ 
dependent  judgment,  keen  vision,  and  easy  mastery  of  material,  than  by  fresh¬ 
ness  of  thought,  boldness  of  combination,  and  striking  originality  of  view.”~ 
The  Speaker. 

IMPRESSIONS  OF  TURKEY  DURING 
TWELVE  YEARS’  WANDERINGS. 


8vo . $1.75 

“  No  conception  of  the  real  status  of  Turkey  is  possible  unless  something  is 
understood  of  ‘  the  interlacing  and  alternation  of  the  separate  and  unblending 
races.’  .  .  .  Such  an  understanding  is  admirably  presented  in  Prof.  Ramsay’s 

book,  which  gives  a  near  and  trustworthy  insight  into  actual  Turkish  conditions.” 
— N.  Y.  Times. 

WAS  CHRIST  BORN  AT  BETHLEHEM? 

A  Study  in  the  Credibility  of  St.  Luke.  Part  I.  The  Importance  of 
the  Problem.  Part  II.  The  Solution  of  the  Problem.  8vo,  $1.75 

“  The  work  is  one  of  which  students  of  biblical  criticism  will  need  to  take  account. 
It  is  absolutely  candid  and  straightforward,  thorough  and  discriminating,  and 
courteous  to  other  scholars  whose  conclusions  it  sees  most  reason  to  condemn. 
It  is  a  fine  piece  of  work.” — The  Congregationalist. 

HISTORICAL  COMMENTARY  UPON  THE 
EPISTLE  TO  THE  GALATIANS. 


8vo 


$3. CO 


G.  P.  PUTNAM’S  SONS,  New  York  and  London. 


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